Wf:*tpniEii^^1iigCoiupflii>'of  i"-!  J-t.iii>., 


•j.IBEPvTY   AND    LA 


OUTLINES  OF  A  NEW  SYSTEM   FOR   THE   OR- 
GANIZATION AND  ADMINISTRATION  OF 
FEDERATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 


BRITTON^    A.   HILL. 


SECOND  EDITION,   BE  VISED    AND    GBEATLY  ENLABOED. 


ST.    LOUIS: 
G.   I.  JONES   AND    COMPANY. 

18bO. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1880,  by 

BRITTON   A.  HILL, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PKEFACE   TO  THE  FIEST   EDITION^. 


In  the  course  of  thirty-five  years'  practice  of  the  law,  I  have  had  many 
opportunities  to  observe  the  operations  of  our  Federative  form  of  govern- 
ment, and  of  our  different  State  constitutions  and  laws,  upon  the  welfare, 
ri"-hts,  and  liberties  of  the  citizens  for  whose  benefit  they  were  ordained  and 
enacted. 

A  careful  study  has  convinced  rae  that  the  main  danger  to  the  permanence 
of  our  Federative  republican  institutions  lies,  firstly,  in  an  originally  defi- 
cient machinery  of  State  and  Federal  organization;  and,  secondly,  in  a 
misconception  on  the  part  of  our  governments.  State  and  Federal,  of  their 
full  duties  under  the  law.  To  the  former  defects  we  owe  the  outbreak  of 
the  late  war,  which,  under  a  properly  constructed  machinery  of  State  and 
Federative  governments,  would  never  have  occurred;  to  the  latter  we  owe 
the  growth  of  those  powerful  monopolies  that,  in  conjunction  with  ignorance 
and  impurity,  —  alternately  supporting  and  deriving  support  from  these,  — 
threaten  every  form  of  liberty  that  has  grown  dear  to  us. 

The  demoralization  consequent  upon  the  late  war  has  hastened  the  general 
recognition  of  this  latter  defect  in  our  political  organization,  by  developing 
the  powers  of  those  monopolies  in  our  midst  to  an  extent  which  makes  the 
danger  threatened  by  them  directly  perceptible  to  every  citizen. 

It  would  have  been  useless  at  any  previous  period  in  our  history  to  expose 
these  sores  on  our  political  body  and  presci-il)e  their  cure.  But  I  think  the 
time  has  come  now  when  the  minds  of  the  people  are  ripe  for  a  thorough 
reorganization  of  our  State  and  Federative  goverinnents,  leaving  the  grand 
idea  of  their  founders  untouched  in  the  main,  but  supplying  the  elements 
that  are  needed  in  order  to  remove  the  disorders  which  must  otherwise  under- 
mine their  life. 

It  may  be  objected  that  it  is  too  bold  a  task  to  sketch  even  the  mere  outlines 
of  such  an  organization,  and  I  readily  concede  that  no  higher  one  can  eiigage 
the  mind  of  man,  than  to  delineate  such  a  plan  through  all  its  features,  State, 
Federal,  and  International.  Nor  can  I  say  anything  in  deprecation,  except 
that  the  thought  of  tins  work  has  engaged  the  best  part  of  my  life,  and 
accompanied  me  throughout  all  my  experience  of  legal  practice  and  a  careful 
study  of  civilizations,  of  hygiene,  and  past  and  contemporary  history. 

If,  however,  I  fail  in  presenting  such  a  plan  in  its  completeness  of  organi- 
zation under  constitutional  and  codified  systems  of  laws,  I  can  only  hope 

(iii) 


IV  PREFACE    TO    THE    FIRST    EDITIOX. 

that  others  following  in  the  same  direction,  with  greater  abilit}',  will  accom- 
plish this  more  perfectly  than  I  have  done.  With  a  well-grounded  belief  in 
the  capacity  of  the  human  race  for  an  unlimited  advance  in  government, 
morality,  law,  art,  science,  and  all  other  means  whereby  the  miseries,  crimes, 
follies,  and  evils  of  life  may  be  lessened,  and  its  happiness  increased  as  much 
as  possible  by  wise  and  just  systems  of  laws,  bearing  equally  upon  all,  I  send 
this  work  forth  to  the  people,  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  and  to- 
break  down  the  despotic  systems  and  monopolies  that  now  fortify  and  increase 
the  power  of  the  oppressors. 

BRITTON  A.  HILL. 
St.  Louis,  August,  1873. 


i:ntroductio]:!^  to  the  first  edition. 


In  considering  the  history  of  all  governments  heretofore  established  by 
anan,  the  student  feels  disheartened  to  meet  everywhere  inadequateness  and 
iailure.  From  the  earliest  beginning  of  history,  when,  under  a  patriarchal 
form  of  rule,  men  first  were  led  to  the  conception  of  a  government  of  law, 
through  all  the  various  forms  of  government  that  have  since  arisen  and  been 
swept  away,  the  common  result  of  disappointment  and  failure  stares  him 
■  -everywhere  in  the  face,  most  discouragingly  in  the  oldest  organized  countries 
•of  the  earth,  — in  China,  Persia,  Egypt,  and  India,  —  where  despotism  rules  so 
absolutely,  that  its  principal  check  is  the  dagger  of  the  assassin.  The  aspect 
is,  nevertheless,  sad  enough  even  in  the  younger  civilizations  of  Eui'ope;  and 
it  is  only  in  our  own  country  that,  by  the  establishment  of  a  Federative 
republic,  a  hopeful  state  of  things  has  finally  been  brought  about,  which  is 
■constantly  threatened,  however,  by  the  growth  of  various  forms  of  despotism 
Avithin  and  around  it. 

It  cannot  but  prove  instructive  to  examine  into  the  causes  of  this  universal 
previous  disappointment,  and  to  discover  the  reason  why  all  former  attempts 
.at  the  establishment  of  adequate  governments  of  law  have  proved  failures, 
.nnd  what  it  was  in  their  organizations  that  became  the  elements  of  their 
destruction,  or  their  perversion  to  the  purposes  of  tj'ranny. 

If  it  appears  that  these  destroying  elements  were  in  all  cases  some  forms 
■of  special  prerogatives  conferred  upon  a  part  of  the  people,  to  the  exclusion 
•of  all  others,  —  either  a  prerogative  of  caste,  of  hierarcliy,  of  exclusive  riglit  to 
rule,  or  of  money-monopoly,  —  we  shall  be  taught  to  comprehend  what  meas- 
ures we  ourselves  require  to  ward  off  the  dangers  that  threaten  us  now  and 
In  the  future,  and  the  fate  that  has  overtaken  all  other  governments  and 
peoples  in  the  past. 

Again,  if  it  shall  appear  that  their  inadequateness  had  its  cause  ahvays  in  a 
neglect  to  provide  for  the  utmost  development  of  all  the  faculties  of  mind 
and  body  of  all  citizens,  thus  fostering  ignorance,  impurity,  and  vice  to  assist 
the  prerogative  elements  in  their  movement  to  crush  the  happiness,  rights, 
.and  liberties  of  the  people,  we  shall  be  able  to  realize  more  effectively  the 
necessity  of  protecting  every  citizen  in  his  threefold  functions  as  a  member 
•of  the  physical  world,  as  a  member  of  the  spiritual-intellectual  world,  and 
as  a  member  of  the  social  State,  against  all  the  encroachments  and  injuries 
to  which  he  may  be  exposed. 

Cv) 


VI  INTRODUCTION    TO    THE    FIRST    EDITION. 

Against  the  hierarchial-caste  element,  which  overthrew  the  Mosaic  fabric 
of  government,  we,  under  our  Constitution,  which  recognizes  no  form  of 
religion  of  any  kind,  but  leaves  each  person  to  worship  God  according  to  the 
dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  need  not  fear  nor  legislate ;  but  the  despotism 
of  any  part  of  the  governmental  power,  be  it  the  legislative,  the  executive, 
the  judicial,  or  merely  the  despotism  of  a  majority  under  unconstitutional 
and  unjust  laws,  must  certainly  be  met  by  the  most  effective  checks.  The 
deadly  rule  of  impurity,  ignorance,  and  vice  we  must  abolish  altogether; 
aud  we  must  crush  the  old  aud  uew  tyrannies,  that  are  growing  up  in  our 
midst,  aud  which  in  all  free  States  and  cities  have,  at  all  times  and  every- 
where, in  the  Greek  as  well  as  in  the  Italian  repu))lics,  been  most  fatal, 
because  most  insidious,  —  the  tyrannies  of  money-power,  of  monopolies,  aud 
of  class  legislation. 

No  State  of  ancient  or  modern  times  has  ever  made  this  its  definite  aim 
and  object,  aud  the  neglect  to  rise  to  this  high  and  truly  rational  view  of  the 
purpose  of  goverumeut  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  numberless  disheartening 
failures.  If  at  times  great  thinkers,  like  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Confucius  in 
the  old  world,  and  Fichte,  Hegel,  and  others  in  the  modern  world,  have  tried 
to  grasp  this  problem,  at  least  theoretically,  the  result  has  been  in  the  former 
cases  simply  a  collection  of  idealistic  dogmatic  notions,  having  no  connection 
with  the  actual  relation  between  men  under  a  government  of  laAV ;  and  in  the 
case  of  the  latter,  an  ai'bitrary  vindication  of  existing  forms,  without  regard 
to  their  inherent  justice  or  sufficiency.  Unsuccessful  as  have  been  the  great 
legislators  of  antiquity,  the  philosophei's  that  should  have  pointed  out  the 
defects  in  their  legislation,  and  the  remedies,  only  wandered  still  farther 
astray. 

The  problem  now  submitted  to  American  statesmen  is  to  discover  how  to 
perfect  the  wise  creation  of  our  great  legislators,  —  of  Washington,  Jeffer- 
son, Adams,  Henry,  Madison,  Franklin,  Paine,  Hamilton,  and  others, — by 
adding  to  it  all  that  a  strictly  philosophical  comprehension  of  their  work  may 
demand,  regardless  of  any  traditional  superstition  that  maj'  have  influenced 
them  in  the  construction  of  our  form  of  government. 

In  the  present  work  I  purpose  to  make  an  attempt  in  this  direqtion;  so 
that,  by  removing  existing  evils  and  abuses,  they  may  successfully  withstand 
all  the  dangers  of  the  future.  I  do  this  without  prejudice  or  favor,  submit- 
ting the  needed  reforms  to  the  people  for  their  examination  and  amendment. 

In  the  present  book,  having  first  very  brieflj'  criticized  the  historical  forms 
of  government  of  previous  times,  so  far  as  they  have  any  bearing  upon  ours 
and  teach  us  the  dangers  that  threaten  us,  1  proceed  to  announce  and  justify 
the  true  fundamental  principles  of  a  State  organization  generally,  and  by 
their  analysis  to  apply  them  to  the  actual  legislation  needed. 

Extending  this  application  to  the  threefold  function  of  men,  I  show  how  a 
representative  government  that  intends  to  realize  its  purpose  to  its  full 
extent  must  establish  by  positive  legislation,  first,  a  complete  .system  of  sani- 
tary laws,  to  protect  the  bodies  of  its  citizens  against  all  impurities  aud 
disease,  the  breeders  of  misery  and  crime ;  second,  a  complete  system  of  edu- 


INTRODUCTION    TO    THE    FIRST    EDITION.  vil 

cation,  extending  to  every  function  of  tlie  mind  and  body,  to  protect  the  intel- 
lectual culture  of  its  citizens  against  the  evil  influences  of  ignorance  and 
superstition  in  all  forms,  and  against  pauperism,  by  providing  each  one  with 
the  means  of  making  a  livelihood ;  and,  third,  a  complete  system  of  intercom- 
munication between  men,  whereby  to  take  from  out  of  the  despotic  influence  of 
mo)iey,  and  all  other  monopolies,  the  terrible  power  which  they  so  long  have 
wielded  to  oppress  the  people,  and  to  exercise  that  power,  through  a  State 
organization  and  federation,  for  the  benefit,  not  for  the  injury,  of  the  people. 

In  this  work  I  purpose  to  develop  the  application  of  those  fundamental 
principles  as  requiring,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  all  men  immunity  from 
tlie  unlawful  interference  of  others,  flrst,  a  code  of  laws  and  a  constitution 
for  each  State ;  second,  a  political  constitution  for  the  federative  republic  of 
all  the  States ;  and,  third,  an  international  constitution  for  all  the  States  of  the 
world,  as  they  may  gradually,  and  one  after  another,  see  the  wisdom  of  adopt- 
ing such  a  legal  international  form  of  government,  if  it  be  practicable,  as  I 
believe  it  to  be. 

While  the  code  of  laws  will  point  out  the  civil  aud  criminal  legislation 
needed,  the  constitution  will  be  showu  to  demaml  a  synthetical  form,  wherein 
alone  the  double  requirement  of  all  government — (1)  that  it  should  have 
absolute  power  to  cai-ry  out  all  its  purposes  and  laws  for  the  good  and  happi- 
ness of  all,  and  (2)  that  it  should  be  absolutely  checked  in  the  exercise  of 
that  power  whenever  attempted  to  be  wielded  in  an  unjust  and  improper 
way — can  (3)  be  united  in  its  character  of  a  federative  republic.  This 
triune  characteristic,  entering  all  the  functions  of  the  State  organization, 
will  necessarily  also  be  applied  to  them,  separating  the  whole  organization 
primarily  into  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  departments. 

Thus,  each  person  may  become  the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes,  under  the 
wise  universal  protection  and  aid  of  a  government  of  law,  having  one  com- 
mon object :  the  permanent  good  and  happiness  of  each  citizen ;  and  the  people 
may  come  to  regard  the  State  as  a  friend,  aud  the  rule  of  law  as  the  only 
safeguard  for  the  preservation  of  liberty  under  the  forms  of  representative 
federative  systems  of  government. 

In  the  organization  of  the  judicial  department  of  the  Federal  republic,, 
I  propose  to  prevent  future  wars  between  the  States,  and  restore  all  the 
States  to  a  just  and  equal  sovereignty  under  the  law,  by  organizing  as  a  per- 
manent safeguard  an  interstate  national  judicial  tribunal,  whose  functions 
shall  be  to  determine  all  controversies  between  the  federative  States,  between 
one  or  more  States  and  the  Federal  government,  and  between  the  citizens  of 
any  State  and  Federal  or  State  governments ;  in  whicli  court  any  State  or 
the  Federal  government  may  be  sued,  and  suffer  judgment  by  due  course  of 
law  or  equity. 

Two  other  Federal  judicial  tril:)unals,  of  sepArate,  distinct  jurisdictions  over 
all  other  causes  and  proceedings  provided  for  in  the  code  of  the  Federative 
government,  should  be  organized,  with  an  appeal  in  important  causes  to  the 
Supreme  Interstate  National  Court. 

I  shall,  Anally,  recommend  the  organization,  by  the  consent  of  several  or  all 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION    TO    THE    FIRST    EDITION. 

of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world,  of  an  international  judicial  tribunal  for 
the  legal  settlement  of  all  controversies  between  States,  nations,  kingdoms, 
and  empires;  providing  for  the  selection  of  a  judicial  officer  from  each  nation 
that  enters  this  international  federation,  and  to  form  a  court  to  settle  all 
disputes  and  controversies  between  nations;  to  render  judgment  on  trial 
before  this  international  court;  and  to  regulate  and  adjust  all  cases  of  con- 
troversies between  the  same  parties  in  the  interchange  of  moneyed  values, 
and  the  settlement  of  balances  between  all  parts  of  the  said  international 
federation,  by  the  organization  of  an  international  clearing-house  under  the 
jurisdiction  and  control  of  such  court. 

Thus,  from  the  lowest  function  of  government,  —  to  provide  for  the  direct 
security  and  sanitary  welfare  of  each  citizen,  —  my  work  will  trace  its  duties 
to  the  highest  in  the  creation  of  an  international  court,  which  may  remove  all 
just  causes  of  war  between  the  federated  nations,  and  realize  the  common 
wish  of  all  good  men  by  the  maintenance  of  universal  peace. 

In  this  age,  when  the  forces  of  heat  and  electricity,  manifested  in  the  tele- 
graph and  the  steam-power,  have  brought  the  people  of  the  world  into  such 
near  contact  and  communication  with  each  other  that  the  welfare  of  each 
individual  is  more  intimately  connected  with  that  of  his  fellow-men  than  ever 
before ;  whan  even  the  locked-up  civilization  of  Japan  opens  itself  to  the 
influence  of  our  own,  and  seeks  to  establish  our  own  imperfect  systems  of 
law,  of  education,  and  of  money  of  divers  kinds:  it  is  clearly  our  duty  to 
raise  our  energies  to  a  level  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  discover,  if  we 
can,  a  truly  universal  system  of  federative  government,  under  wise,  equal, 
just,  harmonious,  and  all-embracing  laws,  that  shall  be  applicable  to  all  races, 
nations,  castes,  and  men,  that  may  be  subjected  to  its  influence,  and  which 
may  effectually  secure  to  one  and  all,  for  all  time  to  come,  the  greatest  good, 
happiness,  morality,  wisdom,  and  perfection  that  humanity  is  capable  of 
attaining. 


PREFACE   TO   THE   SEC0:N'D  EDITION. 


It  is  now  seven  years  since  the  First  Edition  of  "  Liberty  and  Law  under 
Federative  Government  "  was  publislied ;  and  so  generous  has  been  its  recep- 
tion by  tlie  public,  as  evidenced  by  numerous  changes  in  our  governmental 
policy  since  its  publication,  —  changes  which  I  had  therein  suggested  as 
reforms  required  for  the  purification  and  perpetuation  of  our  republican 
form  of  government,  —  that  I  have  been  encouraged  to  give  to  the  public  a 
Second  Edition,  greatly  enlarged,  and  more  fully  carrying  out  the  purpose 
which  I  had  in  view  when  I  first  undertook  the  work. 

It  must  now  have  become  far  more  clearly  and  generally  manifest  than  it 
was  even  seven  years  ago,  that  the  entire  organization  of  our  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  departments  of  government  must  be  radically  re- 
modelled and  refoi-med,  if  we  would  save  for  ourselves  and  our  posterity 
the  rights  and  liberties  which  our  forefathers  sought  to  secure  for  us,  but 
which  unchecked  corruption  in  every  branch  of  the  State  and  Federal  govern- 
ments, rapacious  corporations,  fostering  and  fostered  by  that  corruption,  have 
already  swallowed  up  in  great  part,  and  now  threaten  to  devour  altogether. 

Our  Federal  Constitution  was  adopted,  and,  indeed,  our  Avhole  form  of 
government  was  organized  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  each  citizen  life, 
liberty,  property,  and  equality  of  rights,  through  a  representative  republic. 
The  people  were  no  longer  to  be  plundered,  down-trodden,  and  enslaved  for 
the  benefit  of  a  king  and  a  few  nobles ;  but  were  to  govern  themselves,  by 
themselves,  and  for  themselves. 

This  object,  it  must  be  confessed,  has  been  realized  beyond  the  most  san- 
guine expectation,  and  to  the  astonishment  especially  of  the  outside  world, 
which  had  prophesied  that  a  republic  was  a  chimera,  —  that  only  kings,  or  at 
the  best,  an  aristocracy,  could  govern  the  masses  of  mankind,  and  that  those 
masses  could  never  be  brought  to  govern  themselves. 

But  a  new  form  of  despotism  has  arisen  since  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
a  despotism  of  which  the  founders  of  our  government  had  not,  and  could 
not  have  had  any  adequate  conception,  and  against  which  they  therefore 
did  not  make  any  provision.  This  is  the  despotism  of  chartered  corporations 
and  other  forms  of  money-monopolies,  by  which  the  people  have  since  been 
as  insidiously  plundered  as  they  were  publicly  plundered  in  former  times  by 
the  claimants  of  God-given  and  hereditaiy  prerogatives.  And  here  I  may  as 
well  revert  to  the  legal  power  claimed  by  corporations.  It  is  held,  and 
perhaps  justl}^  held,  that  a  "  State  "  granting  a  jjerpetual  charter  to  a  corpo- 

(ix) 


X  PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

ration  cannot  repeal  that  charter  unless  some  misuser  or  default  has  been 
made  by  the  corporation.  The  ground  taken  is,  that  the  United  States  Con- 
stitution forbids  any  State  from  passing  new  laws  invalidating  contracts; 
and  that  a  charter  granted  by  a  State  is  in  the  nature  of  a  contract,  and 
therefore  cannot  be  repealed  under  the  provision  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 
Now,  leaving  the  latter  assertion  undisputed,  —  since  I  cannot  well  argue 
the  constitutional  issue  here,  —  it  is  very  clear,  that  a  charter  granted  by 
Congress  is  repealable  by  Congress,  and  is  not  a  contract  within  the  meaning 
of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Congress  has  quite  as  much  right  to  annul 
the  charters  granted  to  the  Pacific  Railroad  Companies  as  the  British  Parlia- 
ment has  to  extinguish  any  public  corporation  to  which  it  has  given  legal 
existence.  The  application  of  this  principle  will  appear  more  clearly  in  the 
Second  Part  of  this  work,  where  I  speak  of  public  highways.  I  may  mention 
here,  however,  that  even  a  State  of  a  federative  republic  cannot  be  barred  by 
any  legislative  enactment  which  would  deprive  it  of  the  power  to  annul  per- 
petual charters.  The  legislature  of  a  State,  which  is  elected  every  one,  or 
two,  or  four  years  comes  to  have  the  power  to  make  all  the  people  who 
elected  them,  slaves  of  any  one  or  more  corporations,  simply  by  means  of  a 
charter  granted  in  perpetuity. 

The  greater  part  of  this  work  deals  with  the  problem  how  effectually  to 
eradicate  this  evil  and  provide  agaiust  its  reappearance,  restoring  to  the 
people  their  lost  rights  and  liberties,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  their  stolen 
property.  These  objects  can  be  attained  only,  as  I  shall  show,  by  a  radical 
reconstruction  of  the  wiaole  government,  —  State,  Federal,  and  municipal ;  and 
since  our  present  State  and  National  Constitutions  have  not,  as  we  have  seen, 
provided  against  this  new  form  of  a  money  and  corporation  despotism,  the 
first  essential  step  to  be  taken  is  to  call  a  general  national  convention  for  the 
purpose  of  framing  a  new  Federal  Constitution,  that  shall  effectively  termi- 
nate all  existing  Federal  monopolies  and  prevent  for  the  future  the  growth  of 
similar  polypi,  and  kill  off  the  possibility  of  that  political  corruption  which 
was  prolific  enough  to  engender  these  monsters  and  provide  them  with  the 
food  which  has  swelled  them  to  theii-  present  enormous  dimensions ;  their 
blood-sucking  arms  stretching  in  every  direction  from  the  shores  of  the 
Atlantic  to  those  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  Alaska  to  the  Rio  Grande  del 
Norte. 

So  far  as  this  new  Federal  Constitution  will  necessitate  changes  in  the  form 
of  our  government,  that  subject  is  discussed  in  those  chapters  of  the  First 
Part  of  this  work  that  bear  the  heading,  "  General  Principles  of  a  Federative 
■  Government."     Those  changes  involve  the  following  main  pomts: — 

1.  A  thorough  reconstruction  of  the  legislative  department,  extending  its 
powers  vastly  in  many  respects,  so  as  to  enable  the  govermnent  to  repossess 
itself  of  the  usurped  powers  of  corporations  and  monopolies,  and  manage  them 
in  the  future  for  the  -benefit  of  the  people ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  so  tying  its 
hands  by  constitutional  limitations  and  provisions  of  criminal  prosecution  for 
official  malfeasance,  that  this  most  disgraceful  feature  of  American  politics 
may  be  forever  wiped  out  from  the  future  pages  of  our  history.     This  should 


PKEFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XI 

include  a  constitutional  provision  confining  each  session  to  a  specified  term,  — 
say  two  or  three  months, —  so  that  the  real  business  of  the  session  may 
not  be  left  to  drag  over  until  the  very  last  days  of  the  term ;  and,  for  the  same 
reason,  each  connnittee  to  which  a  bill  is  referred  should  be  constitutionally 
required  to  definitely  report  within  at  least  fourteen  days. 

2.  A  thorough  change  in  the  organization  of  our  judiciary,  which  shall 
effectually  check  that  tendency  towards  judicial  despotism  and  corruption 
which  of  late  years  has  assumed  formidable  dimensions,  and,  if  allowed  to 
develop  itself,  will  of  itself  put  an  end  to  our  free  institutions,  however  pure 
the  other  departments  may  be. 

3.  A  subdivision  of  our  general  Federal  Union  into  five  parts,  each  such 
part  embracing  a  certain  number  of  States,  or  organized  on  the  same  princi- 
ple as  our  general  Federal  Union,  —i.e.,  with  a  separate  congress,  judiciary, 
and  executive. 

a.  The  five  congresses  of  these  five  sub-Unions  to  meet,  after  the  close  of 
their  respective  sessions,  in  one  general  congress,  forming  the  legislative 
department  of  the  whole  Federal  Union. 

b.  The  five  executives  •  to  choose  from  their  midst,  at  each  such  general 
congressional  session,  a  presiding  officer,  who  shall  then  be  president  of  the 
whole  Federal  Union  for  the  ensuing  j-ear;  but  his  power  of  appointment  to 
l)e  limited  to  diplomatic  and  consular  offices.  All  other  Federal  officials  to 
be  elected. 

c.  The  five  judiciaries  of  the  five  sub-Unions  to  constitute,  as  will  be  ex- 
plained hereafter,  an  Interstate  National  Court,  which  will  relieve  the  present 
United  States  Supreme  Court  of  a  large  share  of  its  lal^ors.  That  present 
Supreme  Court,  however,  to  remain,  with  its  collateral  branches,  substantially 
as  at  present. 

4.  A  general  codification  of  laws ;  which  Involves,  of  course,  the  abolition 
of  the  common  law  in  the  whole  Federal  Union  and  each  of  the  separate 
States. 

So  far  as  the  new  Federal  Constitution  will  necessitate  changes  in  the  nature 
of  our  governmental  institutions,  that  subject  is  discussed  in  those  chapters 
of  the  First  Part  that  are  headed  "  Public  Hygiene  "  and  "  Public  Education," 
and  those  chapters  of  the  Second  Part  that  are  classified  under  the  general 
heading,  "Public  Intercommunication." 


Of  course,  my  book  has  not  been  without  its  share  of  adverse  criticism; 
mainly,  I  suppose,  because  it  did  not  confine  itself  to  the  representation  of 
any  single  grievance  under  which  the  people  suffer,  but  gave  expression  to  a 
great  number  of  them,  — those  that  were  most  prominent,  —  in  a  systematic 
form.  This  led  persons  who,  perhaps,  suffered  specially  from  one  kind  of 
injustice  or  governmental  neglect  to  applaud  heartily  those  particular  parts 
of  my  book  which  exposed  their  own  grievances,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
look  with  disfavor  upon  other  parts,  in  which  they  were  not  immediately 
interested,  or  to  which  their  interests  were  adverse. 


Xll  rilEFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION- 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  einnnerate  and  controvert  the  chief  objections  of 
fair-minded  writers,  that  liave  come  to  my  notice. 

These  objections  may  be  classified  under  two  2;eneral  heads:  First,  objec- 
tions to  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  work;  second,  objections  to  the 
special  forms  proposed  in  it. 

In  this  preface  to  the  second  edition  I'shall  confine  myself  to  controverting 
the  first  class  of  objections,  as  a  reply  to  the  second  class  will  occur  in  the 
course  of  the  work,  in  their  separate  order. 

The  chief  objection  raised  against  the  fundamental  principles  of  my  book 
is,  that  I  advocate  in  it  tlie  establishment  of  a  "  paternal  government," — a 
form  of  government  altogether  at  variance  with  our  existing  republican 
institutions  and  traditions.  It  is  said,  that  my  proposed  reforms  would 
involve  too  much  government,  and  various  ancient  maxims  are  quoted  to  the 
effect  that  "  the  least  government  is  the  best,"  etc. 

Now^,  I  might  readily  grant  the  correctness  of  the  principle  in  the  abstract, 
though  I  hold  it  to  be  a  very  faulty  definition  of  a  best  government,  and  might 
yet  contend  that  in  its  practical  application  it  is  subject  to  constant  modifi- 
cation by  existing  circumstances.  The  real  meaning  of  that  principle  is, 
indeed,-  simply  this:  that  government  is  an  institution,  or  contrivance,  or 
agency  wliereby  to  secure  to  each  individual  member  of  a  Commonwealth 
the  utmost  possible  freedom  compatible  with  the  freedom  of  all  other  indi- 
vidual members  of  the  same  Commonwealth,  without  ever  ti'ansgressiug,  or 
being  able  to  transgress  that,  its  only  and  exclusive  prei'ogative. 

That  the  least  government  cannot  realize  this  object  has  been,  I  think,  con- 
clusively established  by  me  in  this  work.  It  may  answer  for  a  savage  tribe ;  not 
for  civilized  communities.  There  is,  no  doubt,  in  every  upgrowing  commu- 
nity a  time  when  it  is  of  paramount  necessity  to  confine  governmental  func- 
tions within  the  narrowest  possible  limits;  but  as  civilization  progresses, 
population  increases,  and  the  great  modern  features  of  society,  commerce 
and  industry,  are  developed,  the  regulating  power  of  that  society  —  the  gov- 
ernment — •  must  correspondingly  outstep  its  original  limits.  Circumstances  of 
time,  space,  and  number  come  here  to  exercise  their  influence  and  demand 
practical  consideration.  Even  as  the  amount  of  money  requisite  for  the  cir- 
culation of  a  country  is  determined  not  only  by  the  number  of  its  inhabitants, 
and  the  necessities  of  their  business  enterprises,  but  also  by  the  extent  of  its 
territory  and  the  distribution  of  its  population  over  that  territory,  so  the 
requisite  legislation  and  constitutional  limitations  for  a  nation  depend  to  a 
great  extent  upon  the  size  of  the  districts  wherein  the  people  are  congregated. 
A  form  of  government  which  may  be  perfectly  adequate  to  secure  the  purpose 
of  its  organization  —  that  is,  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  each  individual  — 
for  a  sparsely  distributed  community  may,  nay,  is  most  likely  to  be,  verj' 
insufficient  for  an  extensive  and  densely  populated  State;  and  the  ZeasJ  gov- 
ernment requisite  for  the  administration  of  a  large  city  may,  on  the  other 
hand,  be  an  exti'emely  cumbersome,  useless,  and  tyrannical  piece  of  machinery 
for  the  administration  of  justice  in  a  newly  settled  territory.  Thus,  a  system 
of  government  that  may  be  altogether  too  loose  and  inadequate  for  a  city 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XIU 

like  Xew  York,  may  be  an  intolerable  interference  with  individual  fi'eedom  If 
applied  to  a  State  like  Colorado,  or  to  Territories  like  Nevada,  Dakota,  and 
Montana.  The  cit}'  of  New  York  ver}^  properly  arrests  the  man  who  lies 
down  to  sleep  on  its  public  walks,  and  takes  him  to  a  lodgini;;  at  tlie  police- 
station;  the  State  of  Colorado  would  commit  an  act  of  insufferable  injustice 
Avere  it  to  arrest  and  incarcerate,  the  tramp  who  laid  down  to  rest  on  the  side 
of  one  of  its  public  highways.  Still,  there  is  no  qualitative  distinction  in  the 
offence  in  either  case.  Eut  that  which  constitutes  the  act  an  offence  in  the 
first  case,  and  makes  it  perfectly  innocent  in  the  other  case,  is  simply  the 
quantitative  distinction  between  a  constantly  thronged  public  street  and  a 
rarely  fi-equented  public  road.  This  distinction,  indeed,  constitutes  the 
ground  of  all  our  so-called  police-laws  and  the  innumerable  regulations 
promulgated  by  the  authorities  of  our  larger  cities ;  regulations  which,  while 
they  seem  to  interfere  with  individual  rights,  abstractly  considered,  are  indis- 
pensable for  securing  them  practically.  I  need  refer  only  to  the  raid  upon, 
gambling-houses  and  violent  seizure  of  their  keepers'  property,  or  the  arrest 
of  suspicious  characters  and  vagrants  without  any  charge  having  been  brought 
against  them.  Theoretically,  there  is  no  reason  why  I  should  not  build  my 
house  in  all  respects  to  suit  myself;  and  if  I  build  in  the  country,  no  law  will 
be  likely  to  iuterfere  with  my  doing  so.  But  in  a  large  city  the  law  does 
interfere,  on  grounds  of  public  safety  as  well  as  public  health.  An  innocent 
act  becomes  thus,  by  mere  change  of  locality,  a  criminal  offence. 

In  short,  to  carry  out  the  principle,  that  the  least  government  is  the  best 
government,  logically,  would  throw  our  whole  present  system  of  government 
back  into  primitive  lawlessness  and  barbarism.  There  would  be  no  police 
courts,  no  public  highways,  no  public  schools,  public  asylums,  public  sewers^ 
public  parks,  etc.,  for  none  of  these  classes  of  institutions  are  directly  neces- 
sary to  secure  the  rights  of  each  individual.  But  since  those  critics  who 
charge  my  proposed  scheme  of  government  as  being  too  paternal  in  its  char- 
acter, deny  the  necessity  of  those  institutions  in  at  least  the  more  crowded 
sections  of  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  those  rights,  why 
will  they  not  accept  the  logical  consequences,  and  advocate  with  me  the  estab- 
lishment by  government  of  all  such  other  institutions  as  our  advanced  civili- 
zation and  increased  population  may  render  necessary  for  the  attainment  of 
the  same  purpose?  If  it  is  within  the  scope  of  the  proper  functions  of  a. 
government  to  establish  public  sewers  at  public  expense  in  order  to  preserve 
life  and  health,  why  not  to  establish  a  system  of  public  parks,  forestry, 
public  railways,  public  telegraphs,  i-iver  improvements,  and  the  like  ?  If  it  is 
granted  that  it  is  the  duty  of  governments  to  erect  and  maintain  asylums  for 
the  poor,  the  crippled,  the  d«af  and  dumb,  the  blind,  and  the  insane,  without 
regard  to  their  religion,  and  that  all  citizens  should  be  taxed  alike  for  their 
support,  on  what  ground  do  certain  sects  insist  that  government  has  not  the 
right  to  tax  all  citizens  equally  for  the  support  of  pul)lic  schools  for  the 
general  education  of  all?  And  if  it  is  conceded  that  the  police  have  the  right 
without  warrant  to  arrest  suspicious  parties  under  certain  circumstances, 
why  should  not  the  right  i)e  extended  to  them  to  reciuire  of  each  unknown  per- 


XIV  PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

son  to  exhibit  his  creilcntials  as  a  reputable  citizen  or  traveller,  in  the  nature 
of  a  passport,  annexed  to  his  pliotograph?  We  have  already  so  far  advanced 
on  these  principles  of  a  representative  government  as  advocated  by  me,  that 
we  have  a  fully  organized  weather  signal-service,  supported  by  public  taxa- 
tion, on  the  sole  ground  that  it  works  for  the  general  welfare.  But  if  it  is 
of  general  benefit  to  be  furnished  by  the  government  with  daily  weather- 
bulletins,  is  it  not  still  more  necessary  to  furnish  the  people  with  a  daily 
National  and  State  newspaper,  giving  reliable  authoritative  accounts  of  all 
governmental  transactions?  We  have  in  a  tolerably  complete  state  a  system 
of  coast-surveys  and  improvements  (light-houses,  harbor-di'edging,  etc.)  ;  is 
there  any  ground  why  our  grand  rivers  should  not  enjoy  a  similar  system  of 
improvements,  l^y  jetties,  dams,  and  dredging?  Of  course  there  must  be 
lines  by  which  to  limit  this  administrative  power  of  a  government,  if  I  may 
so  call  it,  in  distinction  from  the  purely  legislative  power,  —  lines  which 
separate  a  national  republican  form  of  government  from  a  "paternal"  des- 
potism, that  has  no  limitation  at  all,  but  is  purely  arbitrary.  But  I  thought 
that  I  had  been  careful  enough  to  emphasize  my  recognition  of  these  limita- 
tions in  every  part  of  my  work. 

Trained  as  a  lawyer  from  my  youth,  I  cei'tainly  am  little  inclined  to  advocate 
"paternal"  arbitrariness  in  a  form  of  government  as  a  substitute  for  a 
system  of  strict  law ;  but  neither  do  I  feel  disposed  to  see  our  government 
drift  into  a  state  of  anarchy  and  lawlessness  from  sheer  fear  that  some  one's 
imaginary  individual  rights  may  be  molested.  The  age  wherein  we  live  is  not 
the  age  of  the  past ;  and  in  the  United  States,  above  all  other  countries  of  the 
world,  the  most  stupendous  changes  in  the  social  life  of  the  people  have 
taken  and  are  continually  taking  place.  But  these  changes  require  new  gov- 
ernmental machinery ;  and  the  sooner  we  recognize  the  fact  and  apply  such 
machinery  the  better.  All  other  machinery,  the  product  of  our  modern  life, 
has  been  improved  by  American  inventive  genius;  why  should  its  political 
machinery  alone  remain  at  a  stand-still. 

"  Liberty  and  Law  "  is  the  title  of  my  book.  The  fullest  possible  freedom 
for  each  individual ;  but  also  the  fullest  necessary  constitutional  limitations  to 
secure  the  rights  of  all  other  individuals  against  the  despotism  of  class  legis- 
lation and  corporations.  Hence  the  synthesis  also  of  right  and  duty.  No 
one  can  claim  a  right  for  himself  without  confessing  duties  to  all  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  only  by  assuming  those  duties  can  his  rights  be  protected.  It 
is  "paternal"  despotism,  for  instance,  to  take  men  from  their  homes,  com- 
pel them  to  learn  the  art  of  war,  as  it  is  called,  and  then  force  them  to  exer- 
cise that  art  by  killing  brother  men  in  battle ;  for  this  compulsion  abrogates 
individual  freedom  altogether,  and  reduces  the  rational  individual  to  a  mere 
piece  of  machinery.  But  it  is  a  very  proper  exercise  of  governmental  func- 
tions to  save  and  preserve  human  life  as  readily  as  to  destroy  it,  to  compel 
men  to  observe  the  rules  of  a  proper  system  of  sanitary  legislation,  however 
dictatorial  it  may  appear,  since  that  places  his  individual  caprice  within 
bounds,  and  is  necessary  for  his  own  protection  as  well  as  that  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.    Even  nations  recognize  the  legality  of  such  compulsory  sanitary 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XV 

legisLation,  and  hence  do  not  hesitate  to  enforce  against  each  other  —  in  case 
of  epidemics,  for  instance  —  rules  to  prevent  tlie  spread  of  diseases.  Even  the 
diseases  of  .vegetables  — potatoes  and  vines,  for  instance  — and  of  cattle  are 
thus  looked  upon  by  nations  as  proper  subjects  of  international  legislation ; 
and  no  nation  pretends  to  say  that  such  legislation  is  an  illegal  or  improper 
interference  with  free  commerce,  or  the  right  of  travel.  When  the  "black 
death"  leaves  its  Asiatic  home  for  a  westward  expedition,  and  Russia  and 
Austria  draw  up  military  cordons  along  their  frontiers  to  arrest  its  progress, 
none  of  the  other  nations  of  Europe  protest  against  such  sanitary  measures 
as  involving  an  interference  with  their  rights ;  and  even  the  refusal  of  several 
European  countries  to  admit  American  hams,  when  the  trichina  mania  pre- 
vailed, did  not  cause  a  remonstrance  on  the  part  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  early  days  of  our  republic,  when  the  condition  of  the  country  at 
large  was  such  as  to  require  little  general  legislation,  we  find  the  attention  of 
the  great  statesmen  of  those  times  directed  chiefly  to  the  problem,  how  to 
limit  the  powers  of  the  general  government  to  the .  least  practicable  extent. 
This,  at  the  time,  was  quite  proper ;  and  no  one  can  desire  more  sincerely 
than  I  do,  that  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  republican  government 
established  by  the  wise  statesmen  who  founded  our  republic,  and  greater 
than  whom  never  since  made  appearance  in  our  history,  should  forever  be 
cherished  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people.  But  at  the  same  time  I  hold 
that  those  fundamental  principles,  Avhen  logically  carried  out,  and  applied  to 
such  an  extensive  and  intricate  governmental  machinery  as  ours  has  grown 
up  to  be  since  the  days  of  those  statesmen,  require,  of  necessity,  the  reforms 
that  I  have  pointed  out. 

In  truth,  I  might  go  further  and  say,  that  many  of  these  reforms  were 
naturally  considered  by  them ;  and  left  untouched  simply  because  they  were 
convinced,  and  justly  so,  that  the  time  had  not  yet  come  to  carry  them 
out  in  practice,  and  that  their  descendants  would  engraft  them  upon  the  future 
American  legislation  and  constitutions. 

Let  me  cite  an  instance :  One  of  the  most  important  features  of  "  Liberty  and 
Law"  is  the  proposition  to  inaugurate  an  entirely  new  money-system  for  the 
United  States,  by  the  establishment  of  an  absolute  legal-tender  money  for  the 
whole  nation.  Now,  this  very  same  proposition  was  advanced  at  a  very  early 
day  of  our  existence  as  a  united  republic  by  such  statesmen  as  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, Benjamin  Franklin,  and  later  by  John  C.  Calhoun,  and  many  others. 
Thus,  Benjamin  Eranklin  is  very  explicit  on  this  point,  saying  that  "gold 
and  silver  are  not  intrinsically  worth  as  much  even  as  iron  and  lead." 

Thomas  Jefferson,  the  most  enlightened  of  our  American  statesmen,  says 
this :  "  Treasury-bills,  bottomed  on  taxes,  bearing  or  not  bearing  interest,  as 
may  be  found  necessary,  thrown  into  circulation,  will  take  the  place  of  so 
much  gold  and  silver.  Bank  imper  must  be  suppressed,  and  the  circulation 
restored  to  the  nation,  to  whom  it  belongs.^  ^ 

It  would  be  impossible  to  condense  my  proposed  scheme  of  finance  for  the 
United  States  in  fewer  words  than  these  of  the  most  illustrious  founders  of 
our  government. 


XVI  PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

Were  it  necessaiy  to  refer  to  the  very  ^vords  and  sentences  uscrl  by  the 
profounde.st  explorer  of  the  deliciencies  of  our  form  of  government,  as  lixed 
under  tlie  Constitution  of  the  United  States, —  John  C.  Calhoun, —  let  me  quote 
from  one  of  his  speeches  on  the  currency  question  of  1832  these  sentences: 
"  It  appears  to  me,  bestowing  the  best  reflection  I  can  give  the  subject,  that 
no  convertible  paper  —  that  is,  no  paper  whose  credit  rests  on  the  promise  to 
pay  —  is  suitable  for  a  currency.  It  is  the  form  of  credit  proper  in  private  trans- 
actions, between  man  and  man,  but  not  for  a  standard  of  value,  to  perform 
the  changes  generally  which  constitutes  the  approximate  function  of  money 
or  currency.  No  one  can  doubt  but  that  the  government  credit  is  better  than  that 
of  any  bank,  — more  stable  and  more  safe.  Bank  paper  is  cheap  to  those  who 
make  it,  but  dear,  very  dear,  to  those  who  use  it.  On  the  other  hand,  credit 
of  the  government,  while  it  would  greatly  facilitate  its  tlnancial  opei'ations, 
would  cost  nothing,  or  next  to  notliiug,  both  to  it  and  the  people,  and  would, 
of  course,  add  nothing  to  the  cost  of  production,  which  would  give  every 
branch  of  our  industries,  agi-iculture  and  manufactures,  as  far  as  its  circula- 
tion might  extend,  great  advantages,  both  at  home  and  abroad ;  and  I  now 
undertake  to  aflirm,  and  without  the  least  fear  that  I  can  be  answered,  that 
a  paper  issued  by  government,  with  the  simple  promise  to  receive  it  for  all  its 
dues,  would,  to  the  extent  it  could  circulate,  form  a  perfect  paper  circulation, 
which  could  not  be  abused  by  the  government;  that  it  would  be  as  uniform 
in  value  as  the  metals  themselves ;  and  I  shall  be  able  to  prove  that  it  is 
within  the  Constitution  and  powers  of  Congress  to  use  such  a  paper  in  the 
management  of  its  finances,  according -to  the  most  rigid  rule  of  construing 
the  Constitution." 

Now,  it  is  ti'ue,  that  this  financial  question,  the  question  of  money,  was  the 
question  paramount  in  the  minds  of  the  founders  of  this  government ;  but  it 
is  also  clear  to  any  one  who  reads  the  pages  of  the  Federalist,  that  nearly  all 
the  other  problems  alluded  to  by  me  in  this  work  engaged  their  attention. 
Thus,  Jefferson,  who  was  all  in  all  the  greatest  American  statesman,  — though 
George  Washington  will  ever  and  deservedly  rank  higher  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  of  the  whole  world  as  the  most  disinterestedly  good,  unselfish  man 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  —  called  early  attention  to  the  defects  of  our 
judiciary  system.  So  did  Patrick  Henry  to  the  deficiences  in  our  Federal  Bill 
of  Rights. 

But  those  grandest  of  men  could  not  possibly  have  foreseen  the  contin- 
gencies that  might  arise  in  the  course  of  our  national  development.  They 
did  not  foresee  the  necessity  of  the  acquisition  of  the  Louisiana  territory, 
still  far  less  that  of  the  territories  of  Texas  and  California :  nor  had  they  time 
or  money  to  establish  law  codes  on  the  manifold  subjects  that  now  engross 
our  attention. 

How  could  they  have  devised  a  legislation  adequate  to  the  new  era  of 
steam  and  electric  machinery? 

This,  however,  does  not  imply  by  any  means  that  the  form  of  our  govern- 
ment has  undergone,  or  need  undergo  a  radical  change.  It  is  still,  as  it  must 
always  remain,  a  cooperative,  representative  government,  organized  by  the 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XVU 

people  of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  themselves  in  their 
individual  rights,  franchises,  and  liberties,  against  all  forms  of  corporate, 
executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  despotism. 

All  our  township,  city,  town,  county,  and  State  and  Federal  organizations- 
have  been  and  are  constituted  upon  this  basis  of  common  protection  and 
cooperation,  to  maintain  a  just  ecjuality  of  rights  among  citizens.  But  how 
can  such  a  cooperative  system  be  carried  into  effect  unless  the  government 
has  full  power  to  check  every  act  of  the  individuals  composing  that  govern- 
ment which  might  interfere  Avith  the  rights  of  the  others,  and  at  the  same 
time  is  effectually  limited  against  an  undue  and  illegal  exercise  of  that  power? 
In  one  direction  the  power  of  the  government  must  be  absolute,  in  another 
direction  it  must  be  limited;  this  is  the  great  S3'nthesis  which  I  have  tried  to 
develop  in  this  book.  It  must  be  absolute  in  its  power  to  protect  the  life, 
liberty,  and  property  of  each  individual  citizen ;  and  it  must  be  absolutely 
limited  in  its  power  to  infringe  upon  the  natural  rights  of  such  citizens,  by 
injurious  exercise  of  power  by  the  executive,  legislative,  or  judicial  depart- 
ments of  the  government,  whether  State  or  Federal. 

Instead  of  saying,  therefore,  that  my  system  would  establish  too  much 
government  for  the  Avelfare  of  the  people,  it  should  rather  be  said,  that  its 
purpose  is  to  prevent  the  government  officials  from  governing  the  people  too 
much  by  class  legislation,  and  robbing  them  of  their  property,  their  moneys, 
their  public  lands,  and  revenues,  for  the  benetit  of  corporations.  The 
increase  as  well  as  the  dimunition  and  limitation  of  governmental  power 
that  will  result  from  the  adoption  of  my  system  will  secure  to  all  the  people 
the  common  benefit  of  a  national  monej'-system,  a  Federal  and  State  railway 
and  telegraph  system,  and  numerous  other  common  benefits ;  and  will  effec- 
tually relieve  them  from  political  and  corporate  despotism,  and  financial  and 
legislative  peculation.  The  former  object  will  be  achieved  by  establishing 
the  sanitary,  educational,  and  public  intercommunication  codes  that  I  have 
proposed  herein ;  the  latter  object  bj'  limiting  the  State  and  Federal  legisla- 
tures to  the  exercise  of  such  powers  onlj'  as  are  necessar.y  for  the  protection 
of  the  natural  rights  of  all  citizens,  and  the  development  of  all  their  re- 
sources and  faculties,  as  also  by  limiting  the  arbitrary  discretion  of  courts  in 
interpreting  and  construing  an  unknown  so-called  common  law,  through  the 
adoption  of  a  code  of  statutory  laws,  to  be,  so  far  as  possible,  the  same  in 
every  State  of  the  Union,  and  arranged  on  the  plan  of  the  Pandects  and 
the  Code  Napoleon,  illustrated  by  the  Codes  of  California  and  New  York: 
and,  finally,  by  limiting  the  present  discretionary  power  of  executive  officials, 
through  such  a  code  of  departmental  laws  as  would  make  irregular  and  arbi- 
trary action  on  their  part  next  to  impossible.  By  this  latter  clause  I  by  no 
means  desire  to  advocate  what  is  called  "civil  service  reform,"  a  term  im- 
ported from  Europe,  where  all  countries  have  a  military  and  civil  service, 
but  utterly  meaningless  in  the  United  States,  whei'e  there  is  in  theory  and 
substantially  only  one  service,  —  the  civil  service,  —  to  which  the  military 
is  always  subordinate;  for  a  reform  which  measures  the  capacity  of  indi- 
viduals for  consular  duties,  let  us  say,  as  an  instance,  by  his  acquaintance 

b 


XVlll  PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

Avith  the  hiuher  niiitlicmatics,  or  lansuagos,  is  about  equally  ridiculous  and 
iueffective. 

Let  me  recapitulate :  In  the  same  proportion  as  I  desire  to  have  the  power 
of  the  government  assert  itself  by  taking  control  of  all  its  highways,  money- 
making,  and  other  prerogatives,  I  want  that  government  to  be  so  checked, 
that  it  can  under  no  circumstances  whatever  infringe  upon  the  rights  of  the 
people,  of  whom  the  governuient  is,  after  all,  only  the  representative.  Hence 
1  insist  that  the  Federal  Constitution  be  amended  so  as  to  limit  and  restrain 
Cougi'ess  from  granting  the  public  lands  to  any  corporation  or  association ; 
from  making  the  United  States  .a  party  to  any  corporation  or  association,  for 
any  purpose;  and  from  granting,  transferring,  pledging,  assigning,  or  in  any 
Avay  conveying  the  public  moneys,  credit,  franchises,  powers,  or  sovereignty 
of  the  government  to  any  person  or  corporation,  and  from  issuing  any  interest- 
bearing  bonds  of  the  United  States  for  any  purpose.  And,  furthermore,  that 
means  be  taken  to  vacate  all  the  land-grants  to  railroad  corporations,  except- 
ing only  for  such  lands  as  have  already  been  sold  by  those  corporations  to 
innocent  purchasers.  At  the  same  time  the  Federal  government  must  take 
hold  of  and  keep  under  governmental  control  the  whole  railway  and  telegraph 
systems  of  the  country,  managing  them  for  the  equal  benefit  of  every  citizen; 
as  it  manages  the  post-office  system,  for  instance.  There  should  be  no  more 
such  special  legislation  as  has  disgraced  Congress  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
and  whereby  the  people  have  been  systematically  robbed  of  their  rights  as 
well  as  property,  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  grasping  speculators  and  corpora- 
tions, that  were  able  to  buy  up  Congress  and  the  State  legislatures.  And  if 
I  am  asked  how  this  double  task  of  granting  Congress  and  the  State  legisla- 
tures more  power,  and  at  the  same  time  prevent  the  passage  of  private  swind- 
ling schemes,  can  be  accomplished,  I  answer:  by  constitutional  limitations,  to 
be  fixed  by  a  National  and  by  Stat'e  conventions,  which  should  inaugurate  a 
new,  better  era  for  our  politician-ridden  republic.  It  can  be  done  if  we  only 
make  up  our  minds  that  it  shall  be  done.  The  people  are  still  the  power  in 
the  republic;  but  unless  they  determine  to  exercise  it  by  constitutional 
restrictions  on  their  delegates,  and  enforce  it  by  severe  criminal  penalties  for 
such  of  their  representatives  who  fail  to  perform  their  duty  to  the  govern- 
ment, that  power  will  soon  pass  out  of  their  hands. 

Having  thus  exposed  the  misapprehension  which  has  led  critics  to  attribute 
to  this  work  a  system  of  "paternal  despotism,"  I  need  only  bespeak  for  the 
present  greatly  enlarged  edition  of  "  Liberty  and  Law  "  the  same  favor  which 
greeted  its  first  appearance.  If  it  shall  still  more  vitally  impregnate  the 
American  people  with  those  new  ideas  of  political  government,  that  I  consider 
essential  to  the  restoration  and  presen-ation  of  our  republic,  under  the  era 
of  social  change  and  progress  inaugurated  in  the  course  of  this  century,  my 
highest  ambition  will  have  been  realized. 

BRITTON  A.  HILL. 

St.  Louis,  April,  ISSO.     . 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


PAGES 

Preface  to  First  Edttiok iii-iv 

Introduction  to  First  Edition v-viii 

Preface  to  Second  Edition ix-xviii 


PAET     FIEST. 

HISTORICAL.. 

CHAPTER   I. 

The  Origin  of  History ^-^ 

Speculative  View  of  the  History  of  Mankind;  The  Two  Theories; 
An  Inspired  and  a  Lower  Pvace ;  The  Great  Pyramid  of  Jeesah ; 
The  Hebrews;  The  Aryans;  The  Egyptians;  Kant  on  Pveligious 
Reverence 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  Mosaic  Code ^"^^ 

The  History  of  the  Descendants  of  Abraham ;  Moses,  the  Great  Law- 
giver; The  Priestly  Order  of  Levites  had  Supreme  Power;  The 
Downfall  of  the  Jewish  Ecpublic ;  The  Destruction  of  the  Mon- 
archy ;  The  Survival  of  the  Jew. 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  Greek  Republics 12-14 

Lack  of  Political  Insight  among  the  Greeks;  Their  Aversion  to  a 
Fixed  Form  of  Government;  Their  Downfall  due  to  the  Absence 
of  Government  and  Law,  and  the  Growth  of  Aristocracies,  with  the 
Increase  of  Commerce  and  the  Money-Power;  Sparta  the  only 
Exception. 


XX 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

TuE  Roman  Republic •        • 

Theocratic  Despotic  Form  of  Government  in  Rome  under  the  Kings; 
Brutus  establishes  a  Republican  Government;  The  Foundation  of 
a  Regular  System  of  Laws;  The  Twelve  Tables;  The  Happiest 
Period  of  the  Roman  Republic ;  Growing  Love  of  War  and  Conquest 
leads  to  General  Demoralization;  The  Massacres  of  Marius  and 
Sylla;  Downfall  of  the  Republic  under  Ciesar. 


PAGES 

14-16- 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Feudal  Governmexts • 

Invasion  of  the  Roman  Empire  by  the  Huns  and  Goths;  Disappear- 
ance of  Roman  Legislation;  Its  Replacement  by  the  Asiatic  System 
of  Feudalism;  Von  Raumer  and  Montesquieu  on  Feudalism;  Its 
History  and  Downfall;  Frederick  Hohenstaufifen  IL  attempts  to 
formulate  new  Codes  of  Law ;  The  Lombardian  Republics. 


16-19' 


CHAPTER   VI. 

The  French  REPrBLic 

The  French  Revolution  the  First  Attempt  to  overthrow  the  Feudal 
System;  Its  Success;  The  Napoleonic  Empire;  The  Code  Napo- 
leon; The  present  Prosperity  of  France  under  the  Rule  of  the 
New  Republic. 


19-2a 


CIIAPrER   VII. 

The  Swiss  Confederation       . 20-21 

The  only  Republic  in  Europe  established  permanently;  The  Refer- 
endum;  The  Lauded  Aristocracy  of  Switzerland, 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

The  Bpjtish  Empire 

Characterizali(jn  of  the  British  Government;  The  British  Landed 
Aristocracy  and  House  of  Peers  remnants  of  Feudalism;  Entails 
and  Primogeniture;  Signs  of  a  Peaceable  Revolution  and  the 
0:ganizationof  aFrce  Republic;  The  Unfathomable  Gulf  between 
the' Rich  and  the  Poor  \n  Great  Britain ;  The  Irish  Troubles ;  The 
Remedy. 


22-25 


T4BLE    OF    COJMTENTS.  XXI 


CHAPTER   IX. 

PAGES 

The  German  Empire 25-27 

The  Revolution  of  1848  in  Genmuiy ;  Cause  of  its  Lack  of  Success; 
The  present  German  Empire;  Kesults  of  the  Franco-German 
War;  The  Spread  of  Centralized  Rule  and  fostering  of  the  Mili- 
tary Power;  Increase  of  Taxes;  Emigration  to  escape  Military 
Conscription. 


CHAPTER  X. 

"The  Russian  Empire 27-29 

Russia  an  Anomalous  Mixture  of  Despotism  and  Nihilism;  Its  Mili- 
tary Power,  and  Danger  to  Western  Europe ;  The  Standing  Armies 
of  Europe. 

CHAPTER   XI. 

The  Irrepressible  Conflict  in  Europe 29-31 

Europe  on  the  Eve  of  a  W"i"ld-Historical  Conflict;  Turkey  in  Europe 
the  Prize  to  be  won  ;  Russia  and  Austria-Hungary  the  Rivals  in  the 
Contest;  Dismemberment  of  Turkey;  These  Wars  likely  to  lead 
to  the  Organization  of  an  International  Court,  ending  all  National 
Wagers  of  Rattle  and  settling  them  bj'-  Law. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

"The  Republic  of  the  United  States 31-38 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  an  Absolute  Creation  of  Rea- 
son; Its  Advantages  on  that  Account;  Bad  Results  from  leaving 
State  Governments,  organized  in  Colonies  settled  under  British 
Colonial  Charters  and  the  Common-Law  System  of  Feudality,  sub- 
ject to  that  System  of  Law;  Necessity  of  amending  our  Federal 
and  State  Constitutions  so  as  to  secure  Uniformity,  by  codifying 
the  Law  and  abolishing  the  Common  Law;  Other  Need  for  such 
Amendments  fovmd  in  the  new  Social  Life  brought  about  by  the 
new  Era  of  Steam  and  Electricity  and  the  Growth  of  our  Popula- 
tion; The  Natural  Results  of  such  Amendments  and  Changes. 


GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OP  A  FEDERATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

CHAPIER   I. 
Fundamental  Principles 39 


XXU  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PAGES 

Analysis  of  Fundamental  Principles 39  42 

Man's  Essence  is  Freedom;  History  nothing  but  Man's  Strife  for  this 
Freedom  through  Law  and  Government;  Culture  shows  Man's 
Strife  for  its  Internal  Realization;  Neither  can  be  attained  sepa- 
rately—  hence  the  necessity  of  extending  the  Sphere  of  Govern- 
ments so  as  to  secure  not  onl}'  Freedom,  but  also  Culture ;  This 
the  only  way  to  realize  Man's  Destination  on  Earth;  Division  of 
the  Subject. 

CHAPTER   III. 

Their  Realization  in  a  Federative  Republic 43-44 

A  new  National  Convention  for  the  Amendment  of  our  Federal  Con- 
stitution needed,  to  inaugurate  the  Requisite  Reforms  in  our  Gov- 
ernment and  its  Administration ;  Objections  to  it  removed. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Requirements  of  a  Federative  Republic  ...        .        .        .      44-48 

Montesquie,u's  Requirements  of  such  a  Republic  insufficient;  Pro- 
posal to  separate  one  Union  into  five  sub-Unions ;  A  subsequent 
American  Federation,  and  ultimately  a  World-Confederation; 
Consequent  Changes  necessary  in  the  Executive,  Legislative,  and 
Judiciaiy  Departments;  An  Interstate  National  Court;  Increase 
of  Judges  in  the  Federal  Courts ;  Separation  of  Causes  into  Distinct 
Classes,  to  facilitate  the  Decision  of  Causes. 

CHAPTER   V. 

The  Necessity  of  a  Codifcation  of  Laws 48-59 

^he  Abolition  of  the  Common-Law  System  indispensable  under  the 
proposed  New  Constitution ;  General  Inadequacy  and  Oppressive- 
ness of  that  System ;  It  gives  constantl}'  rise  to  Conflicting  Deci- 
sions; The  Overthrow  of  the  Constitution  of  Missouri  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  1874,  and  other  Cases  in 
Point;  Danger  of  Judicial  Despotism  ;  Two  Kinds  of  Codes  neces- 
sary—  Federal  and  State;  Requirements  of  each  Kind;  The  New 
York  Code  a  good  Model  of  a  State  Code ;  The  Prior  Establishment 
of  a  Federal  Code,  however,  advisable,  in  order  to  secure  Uni- 
formitj';  The  Yexatiousness  of  having  Thirty -eight  different 
Statutory  Laws  for  so  many  different  States ;  The  Folly  of  array- 
ing State  Pride  against  Uniformity  of  Codes;  The  Benefit  of  hav- 
ing an  International  Code  illustrated  by  the  Results  derived  from 
recent  International  Congresses;    The  International  Postal  Con-  - 

gress  and  its  Benefits. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXUl 


CHAPTER   VI. 

PAGES 

Concluding  Remarks •        •      59-G3 

Draft  of  an  Act  for  Congress  and  the  State  Legislatures,  to  prevent 
corrupt  Judicial  and  Official  Action,  Decision,  or  Judgments. 

PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  , 

CHAPTER   I. 

Definition  of  Public  Hygiene       . 64-61 

Limitation  of  Public  Hygiene  to  Pure  Air  and  Pure  Food;  Supreme 
importance  of  Pure  Air. 

CHAP'J'ER  II. 

"W  BATHER   AND   ClIMATB    .  .  c Co- ^'6 

Influence  of  Weather  and  Climate  on  the  Purity  of  the  Air;  Gov- 
ernment must  keep  strict  and  extensive  Supervision  over  all 
Weather  Phenomena. 

CHAPTER   III. 

Pure  Air • 6(J-76 

Impure  Air  the  Chief  Source  of  Disease;  Also  propagates  Immoral- 
ity; Dr.  Von  Pettenkoffer  and  Dr.  Menzie  on  Quantity  of  Air 
breathed  by  Man;  The  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta;  Our  Nurseries 
similar  Black  Holes;  Mortality  of  Children  in  the  United  States; 
Love  of  Foul  Air  a  Species  of  Love  of  Intoxication;  Necessity  of 
Ventilation  in  all  Buildings;  Drs.  Drysdale  and  Hayward  on 
Ventilation;  British  Government  Commission  on  same  Subject; 
Need  of  warming  Houses;  Charles  Dickens  on  Polluted  Air; 
Means  to  secure  Pure  Air. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

r 

Laying  Out  of  Cities 76-86 

Government  should  prescribe  for  all  Cities  and  Villages  a  Minimum 
Width  of  Streets  and  Alleys ;  Also,  Proportionate  Number  of 
Public  Squares;  Trees  as  Purifiers  of  the  Air;  Dr.  J.  M.  Anders; 
•Trees  as  Electric  Agents;  Drs.  Pfaff,  Ahrens,  Hummer,  and  Sie- 
mens; Trees  and  Light;  Drs.  Hunt,  Saussure,  Priestley,  Sennebier, 
and  De  CandoUe ;  Public  Baths  and  Fountains  to  be  erected ; 
Importance  of  purifying  the  Soil  in  Cities;  Perfect  Drainage; 
Removal  of  Sewage ;  The  London  System ;  Professor  Lieber  on 
Utilization  of  Sewage;  The  different  Processes  in  Use;  Gas- 
works and  Slaughter-houses  must  be  excluded  from  Cities.        ■    ■ 


XXIV  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   V. 

PAGES 

Construction  of  Btjilbings  within  the  Cities 86-90 

Necessity  of  a  Building-Law  for  every  City ;  Safety  in  the  Construc- 
tion and  Ventilation  the  Main  Objects  in  such  a  Law;  The  Soil 
under  the  House  an  Active  Agent  in  the  Spread  of  Disease,  Infec- 
tion, and  Epidemics;  Dr.  Pettenkoffer  on  the  Subject;  Sraoke- 
Consumers  needed  in  Cities. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Personal  Cleanliness 90-91 

Personiil   Cleanliness  chiefly  promoted   by  Pure   Air;  Next  by  an 
Abundance  of  Baths. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Laying  Out  of  Counties  and  Townships 91-94 

The  Agricultural  Districts  also  to  be  placed  under  Sanitary  Control ; 
Importance  of  Drainage ;  Importance  of  Parks  and  Forests  for  the 
Farming  Districts;  Their  Influence  on  the  Productiveness  of  the 
Soil;  To  be  combined  with  a  System  of  Sheets  of  Water;  The 
Influence  of  larii-e  Parks. on  the  Weather. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Pure  Food  and  Drink 94-9& 

Necessity  to  regulate  the  Sale  of  all  Food  and  Drink;  To  preserve 
the  Health  of  all  Animals  and  the  Soundness  of  all  Vegetables 
consumed  by  Man ;  Supervision  over  all  Markets  and  Slaughter- 
houses; Enforcing  Game-laws;  Stocking  Puvers  and  other  Waters 
w.th  Healthy  Fish;  Inspecting  Milk  and  all  Kinds  of  Drinks  and 
Liquors;  Inspecting  Drugs,  and  providing  Pure  Vaccine  Matter; 
Examining  all  Wells  and  Water-works. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Concluding  Remarks 95-107 

The  absolute  need  of  such  a  general  and  complete  Sanitary  Sys- , 
tern;  Sporadic  Efforts  result  in  Comparative  Failure;  The  Beauty 
such  a  S\'stem  would  reflect  on  Cities  and  Landscajies ;  Objections 
to  stTch  a  System  considered ;  The  Ancient  Persian  Custom  of 
planting  Trees  to  purify  the  Soil  and  Earth;  "Arbor  Day" 
in  Nebraska;  Cyrus  Thomas  on  the  Necessity  of  increasing  the 
Watercourses  in  the  West;  Napoleon's  Prohibition  of  Timber- 
cutting  on  the  Khine;    Gen.  .James    S.    Brisbin   on  our  Euinous 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXV 


Mode  of  Timber-felling;  The  general  Decrease  of  our  Timber 
Belts;  Introduction  of  the  Eucalyptus  Tree;  Decrease  of  the 
Timber  Land  in  the  Eastern  States;  Legislation  for  Railroads  and 
Horse-cars  needed;  Drs.  Simon,  Tanner,  Rush,  and  Florence 
Nightingale  on  Diseases  and  Epidemics. 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER   I. 

Rklatiox  of  Mobalitt  and  Law 108-109 

The  Conceptions  of  Law  of  a  Twofold  Peculiarity ;  Law  neither  a  , 

Natural  Force  nor  a  Moral  Force,  but  it  makes  the  Manifestation 
of  the  Moral  Law  Possible;  The  End  and  Destination  of  Man 
lies  beyond  Pure  Legality ;  It  can  be  realized  only  in  the  Moral 
Law. 

CHAPTER   11. 

Thk  Right  TO  Rest 109-110 

In  order  to  enable  Man  to  rise  to  a  Life  in  the  Moral  Law,  the  Tiaw  must 
secure  him  Time;  The  Sabbath  instituted  for  this  Purpose;  The 
Modern  State  to  protect  Citizens  in  a  Daily  Time  of  Rest;  ■  Time 
Man's  real  Wealth ;  Regulation  by  Law  of  Time  of  Daily  Labor ;  Of 
Children's  Labor;  The  Sunday  Rest  to  be  absolutely  protected. 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  Right  to  Schools Ill 

But  Time  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  rise  to  Moral  Culture;  Man  must 
have  the  Means  placed  within  his  Reach  to  attain  it;  Hence  the  State 
must  furnish  its  Citizens  Schools  and  Teachers. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Nature  OF  Edtjcation 111-114 

The  Task  of  Education ;  It  extends  to  every  Faculty  of  our  Mind  and 
Body;  Culminates  in  the  Study  of  Pnilosophy,  of  Morals,  and 
^Esthetics;  Man's  Descent  from  the  Ape  an  Absurdity;  Cuvier, 
Huxley;  The  Infinity  of  Man's  Life. 

CHAPTER  V. 

Classification  OF  Schools 115-llG 

Gymnasiums  with  Military  Schools  attached,  for  Bodily  Culture; 
Common  Schools,  High  Schools,  Colleges  and  Universities,  with 


XXVi  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

Schools  of  Agriculture,  Technolog}',  the  Fine  Arts,  Business 
Education,  Law,  and  Medicine,  for  Intellectual  Culture ;  Moral  Cul- 
ture to  accompany  the  Intellectual  Culture. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

School  Exhibitions 116-117 

A  System  of  Rewards  and  Premiums  for  each  School  an  Incitement 
for  the  Scholars  in  Place  of  Punishment,  their  Distribution  form- 
ing a  Feature  of  the  Annual  School  Exhibitions. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

t'he  Education  of  Every  Scholar  for  a  Vocation      ....  117-118 

Upon  leaving  School  each  Scholar  supposed  to  enter  Practical  Life; 
Consequent  Necessity  of  a  Fixed  Vocation;  This  System  of  Scliools 
does  furnish  each  with  a  Vocation;  The  State  to  furnish  Food, 
Lodging,  and  Clothing,  when  absolutely  necessary,  during  the 
Acquirement  of  such  Vocation ;  Equality  of  Sexes  in  all  t-chools. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

Analysis  of  this  System  of  Schools      .        .  *' 118-132 

The  Physical  Education  to  be  as  thorough  as  possible;  Agility, 
Beauty,  Grace,  and  Health  of  the  Body  to  be  equally  Objects ;  The 
Military  Schools  to  make  exclusively  organized  Military  Bodies 
useless;  Infantry,  Cavalry,  and  Artillery  Service  to  be  Taught; 
Strength  of  such  a  System;  The  Common  Schools  to  Teach  the 
Elementary  Branches:  the  Agricultural  Schools  to  bring  up 
Farmers  in  the  Knowledge  of  their  Business:  the  Inddstrial 
Schools  will  bring  up  Skilled  Mechanics:  the  Schools  of  Tech- 
nology, Professionals:  the  ^thetistical  Schools,  Artists:  the 
Business  Schools,  Merchants,  Bankers,  and  General  Business  Men:  • 
the  Law  and  Medicine  Schools,  respectively.  Lawyers  and  Doc- 
tors :  the  Normal  Schools,  Teachers :  the  High  Schools,  Colleges, 
and  Universities  to  furnish  the  Highest  Grade  of  Learning  to  such 
Scholars  as  intend  to  devote  their  whole  Life  to  Pure  Science ;  The 
Universities,  furthermore,  to.be  Places  for  the  Appliance  of  that 
Learning  and  its  Diffusion  throughout  the  whole  Scientific  World. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Concluding  Remarks 132-136 

Objections  to  this  System  of  Public  Schools  considered ;  It  does  not 
interfere  with  the  Relation  between  Parent  and  Child,  but  it  fur- 
nishes every  Child  with  the  Means  of  developing  its  Intellect  and 
the  Abilitv  to  earn  a  Liveliliood ;  Hence  the  Justice  of  Taxing  all 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


XXVll 


Citizens  equally  for  their  Support;  It  does  not  interfere  with  the 
Child's  Religious  Education ;  Religion  not  taught  in  the  Public 
Schools ;  To  be  taught  in  Evening  Schools  or  Sunday-Schools  at 
each  Parent's  Option ;  Sectarian  Schools  are  untrammelled  by  the 
State ;  The  State  does  not  levy  Taxes  for  them  any  more  than  for 
Sectarian  Churches,  Hospitals,  etc. ;  Objections  to  Public-School 
Text-Books  and  ''Readers"  equally  absurd;  A  Non-Sectarian 
Pulslic-School  System  must  be  upheld  in  our  Republic. 


PAKT     SECOND. 


PUBLIC  INTERCOMMUNICATION, 

General  Prtnoiples 

The  Duties  of  Government  in  regard  to  the  Intercommunication  of 
its  Citizens;  These  Duties  must  be  organized  into  a  complete,  har- 
monious System ;  The  Recklessness,  Fraud,  and  Extravagan,ce  with 
which  our  Government  has  hitherto  administered  this  Branch  of 
its  Duties;  The  Republic  placed  at  the  Mercy  of  Political  Schemers 
and  Corporate  Despotisms;  Congress  dividing  its  Sovereignty  over 
the  Currency  with  National  Banks;  Encouraging  Gold  Speculation 
and  Swindling;  Assigning  its  Control  over  Highways  to  Private 
Corporations;  Fostering  Telegraph  Monopolies;  Corruptly  grant- 
ing enormous  Districts  of  Lands  and  advancing  the  Public  Credit 
to  grasping  Railway  Monopolies ;  AH  this  must  be  stopped  by 
Amendments  to  the  Federal  and  State  Constitutions ;  The  Gov- 
ernment must  reassert  its  Right  exclusively  to  control  the  Currency, 
and  assume  exclusive  Possession  and  Control  of  all  Railways  and 
Telegraphs ;  The  Checks  on  these  Powers  to  be  secured  by  Con- 
stitutional Amendments;  Also,  by  reorganizing  our  State  and  Fed- 
eral Legislatures  and  Judiciaries  on  Principles  that  shall  effectually 
prevent  Corruption ;  The  scandalous  and  corrupt  Action  of  Con- 
gress in  its  Treatment  of  the  National  Currency  Issue  during  the- 
late  War;  The  necessity  of  a  National  and  State  Public  Registra- 
tion System ;  Of  the  Codification  of  all  State  and  Federal  Laws, 
and  the  Abolition  of  the  Common  Law;  Tlae  TarifT  must  be  alto- 
gether Abolished ;  The  Immigration  of  Chinese  Labor-Slaves  to  be 
prohibited;  Every  Citizen  should  exercise  his  Political  Functions; 
How  this  can  be  accomplished ;  Polygamy  to  be  Abolished  by 
National  Laws ;  The  Establishment  of  State  and  National  News- 
papers; Communistic  and  Socialistic  Outbreaks  to  be  promptly 
suppressed. 


139-150 


XXVlll  TABLE    OF    CONTENIS. 

MONEY. 

CHAPTER    I. 

PAGES 

Orioin  of  Money 151 

Barter  the  first  Mode  of  exchanging  Commodities ;  As  this  became 
impossible,  with  the  Spread  of  Mankind,  Gold,  Silver,  and  Jewels 
became  generally  recognized  Tokens  for  Exchange  of  Commodities ; 
Finally,  Gold  and  Silver  were  coined  by  the  State  in  order  to  guar- 
antee their  Weight. 

CHAPTER   II. 

Investtion  of  Banking 152-15S 

The  Extension  of  the  Money  System  leads  to  Money-Brokerage  and 
Money-Despotism;  This  Despotism  growing  as  Commerce  and 
Industry  expand ;  Illustrated  by  the  Histories  of  Carthage,  Tyre, 
Greece,  Rome,  and  later,  of  the  Trading  Cities  of  Lombardy; 
Metallic  Money  becomes  insufficient  for  the  Demands  of  Business; 
Invention  of  Banking  and  Money  of  Account. 

CHAPTER   III. 

Creation  of  Money  Accounts  and  of  State  Debts  .  .  .  153-163 
Further  Increase  of  the  World's  Money  of  Account ;  The  Mode  of 
Operation  by  which  this  is  done;  Quotation  from  Blackwood's 
Magazine  ;  The  Governments  conclude  to  also  issue  Money  of  Ac- 
count; Issue  of  Government  Bonds;  The  present  Bonded  Indebt- 
edness of  the  Nations  of  the  World ;  State  and  Municipal  Bonded 
Indebtedness;  Oppressiveness  of  Taxation  to  pay  Interest  on  these 
Bonds;  Reckless  Contraction  and  Increase  of  these  Public  Debts; 
Great  Britain  and  New  York  City  as  Illustrations;  Bonds,  how- 
ever, not  only  Public  Debts,  but  also  Money. 

CHAPTER   rV. 

•The  Curse  of  Interest 163-165 

Bonds  a  Blessing  as  Money:  A  Curse  as  bearing  Interest;  This 
Interest  the  great  Cause  of  Monej^-Monopolies ;  Bonds  also  a  Mort- 
gage on  a  State;  Paper  Money,  on  the  other  hand,  bearing  no 
Interest,  simply  a  Blessing. 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  True  Nature  of  Money •        •  165-180 

Government  alone  should  have  the  Power  to  Issue  Money;  The 
Amount  needed  for  Circulation;  How  to  be  issued;  Of  the  Cheap- 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXIX 

PAGES 

est  Substance;  Objection  answered  that  Paper  Money  is  Rag 
Money;  Present  Coinage  of  the  United  States;  The  Intrinsic 
Value  Theory  of  Coin- Worshippers;  Its  ^XJbsurdity  and  Delusion; 
The  Silver  Question ;  Production  of  Metals  in  the  United  States ; 
Throughout  the  whole  World;  Renionetization  of  Silver  breaks 
down  the  Rule  of  the  Gold  Men;  Franklin  on  Intrinsic  Value  of 
Gold  and  Silver;  This  Plan  of  an  Absolute  Legal-Tender  Money 
not  a  Visionary  Project;  Its  Partial  Adoption  by  Russia  and 
France;  Fichte  its  Chief  Advocate  in  German}';  Why  Govern- 
ment exclusively  should  regulate  Monej-;  R.  H.  Patterson,  the 
Champion  of  Absolute  Legal-Tender  in  Great  Britain,  in  its  Ad- 
vocacy. 

CHAPTER   VI. 

History  of  our  Paper  Money       .        .        .        .        .        .        ,        .  180-197 

Issues  of  the  Continental  Congress;  First  United  States  Bank  Estab- 
lished in  1791:  Second  in  1816;  Chartering  of  State  Banks;  Con- 
flicts between  Federal  and  State  Banks ;  Downfall  of  the  Federal 
Banks  under  Jackson ;  Extravagant  Issue  of  Irresponsible  State- 
Bank  Notes;  Their  Depreciation  and  Suspension  in  1837;  Issue  of 
LTnited  States  Treasury-Notes  in  1837-8-9;  Their  Withdrawal  and 
the  Establishment  of  State  Banks  in  1841,  and  Passage  of  Bank- 
rupt Act;  Consequent  Fluctuations  and  Panics  from  1843  to  1801 ; 
First  Issue  of  Federal  Money  at  the  Outbreak  of  the  Civil  War; 
Further  Issue  till  1864;  Disastrous  Results  of  having  Three  Kinds 
of  Money;  Issue  of  Federal  Bonds  to  supplj'  more  Money;  The 
Ruinous  Discount  of  their  Sale  in  July.  18G4;  Criticism  of  the 
Financial  Policy  of  the  Government;  Establishment  of  the  Na- 
tional Banks;  The  "Blunder  and  Expensiveness  of  the  Scheme; 
The  Outrage  of  the  Act  of  Congress  declaring  our  Currency  Bonds 
to  be  payable  in  Coin ;  The  Contraction  Policy ;  General  Banl<- 
ruptcy  the  Result  of  these  Measures;  List  of  Bankruptcies  in  the 
United  States;  The'  Currency  must  be  increased  by  substituting 
Greenbacks  for  Bonds;  Comparison  of  the  per  capita  Amount  of 
Money  in  our  Country  with  that  of  other  Countries;  The  Gold 
Ring  endeavors  to  still  further  decrease  our  Circulating  Money- 
Medium  ;  Repeals  the  Legal-Tender  Act  and  decrees  Specie  Re- 
sumption; An  Absolute  National  Legal -Tender  Money  System 
the  only  Remedy  for  the  present  Abnormal  Condition  of  our  Fi- 
nances; Objections  to  it  removed;  It  cannot  be  illegitimately 
over-issued,  but  the  present  Money  of  Account  can  be  over- 
issued; Thomas  Tooke  on  Over-issues;  Coin  also  can  be  over- 
issued; The  present  Power  of  Congress  to  issue  Bonds  is  also  a 
Power  to  over-issue  Monej'. 


XXX  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PAGES 

FoBEioN  Exchanges  and  an  rNTERNATioNAL  Clearing-IIotjse     .        .  198-199 
iSuch  an  Absolute  Money  once  established,  it  will  soon  become  cur- 
rent Abroad  as  well  as  at  Home;  An  International  Clearing-House 
would  facilitate  its  Exchange  for  other  Moneys. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

Postal  Savings-Banks      •. 200-202 

The  Establishment  of  Postal  Savings-Banks  would  still  further 
facilitate  the  Circulation  and  Exchange  of  Absolute  Money ;  Their 
Success  in  Great  Britain ;  Postal  Orders  already  effecting  the  same 
Object. 

CHAPTER    IX. 

Concluding  Remarks •        202-203 

bummary  of  Advantages  to  be  derived  from  an  Absolute  National 
Legal-Tender  Money  System. 


MONEY  —  APPENDIX. 

[FroJH  "Absolute  Money.^'] 

CHAPTER    III. 

Eelation  of  Absolute  Money  to  Coin 204-215 

Gold  and  Silver  must  Fall  in  Price  when  no  longer  Legal  Tender; 
No  Need  of  Pvedemption  of  Absolute  Money  in  Coins,  it  being  con- 
vertible in  all  the  Commodities,  Products,  Metals,  and  Revenues  of 
the  Nation;  John  C.  Calhoun;  Thomas  Jefferson;  M.  E.  Davis; 
R.  H.  Patterson;  Practical  Benefits  of  having  a  National  Legal- 
Tender  Irredeemable  in  Specie,  illustrated;  Disastrous  Results  of 
pretending  t(j  have  a  Specie  Basis;  It  leads  to  Panics,  and  by  Con- 
traction of  Bank  Circulation  and  Deposits,  aggravates  their  Disas- 
trous Effects ;  Panics  not  caused  by  "  Over-issues  "  or  "  Overtrade." 

CHAPTER  V. 

A  Specie   Basis   necessarily   a   Falsehood,  a  Delusion,  and  an 

Absurdity 216-219 

Proved  by  Law's  Scheme,  by  the  French  Assignats,  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land Notes,  the  American  Continental  Money,  etc. ;  No  Bank  can 
Pay  its  Obligations  in  Specie;  R.  H.  Patterson;  Charles  Sears; 
Stephen  Colwell. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXXI 


CHAPTER   VI. 

PAGES 

The  True  Basis  of  Absolute  Money 219-233 

Its  Character  as  the  only  Medium  for  the  Interchange  of  the  Commod- 
ities of  a  Nation,  and  as  the  only  Legal-Tender;  Its  Convertibility 
into  all  the  Products  of  the  Nation,  including  Gold  and  Silver; 
It  is  the  only  Medium  of  Interchange  adequate  for  our  Growing 
Business;  It  is  also  based  on  the  Public  Debt  of  the  United  States; 
It  aflFords  more  Security  than  any  other  Kind  of  Money ;  Hon.  Geo. 
Opdyke;  Ex-Chancellor  0.  S.  Halsted;  Mr.  K.  H.  Patterson's 
Objections  to  such  a  National  Money-System  criticised  and  an- 
swered. 

PUBLIC   HIGHWAYS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

The  Nature  of  Highways 234 

The  State  must  have  Access  to  every  Citizen,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
protect  him  and  establish  Communication  between  the  Citizens; 
Hence  the  Public  Highways  are  State  Institutions. 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Mail  and  the  Telegraph 235-241 

The  Postal  Service  as  one  Mode  of  utilizing  Public  Highways; 
Why  the  State  should  also  utilize  them  for  the  Telegraph  Service; 
Danger  of  placing  that  Service  in  the  Hands  of  Monopolies;  All 
European  States  have  been  compelled  to  assume  Control  of  the 
Telegraph;  Beneficial  Results  in  Cheapening  Rates ;  Operation  of 
Telegraph  Monopolies  in  the  United  States ;  Extent  of  our  Tele- 
graph Lines;  The  Telegraphs  of  the  World;  Need  of  Govern- 
mental Control  of  the  Telegraph  to  direct  a  National  Public 
System ;  Our  Military ;  Our  Money  Affairs  and  Exchanges ;  The 
Outrage  of  Private  Corporations  controlling  all  Telegraphic  News. 

CHAFFER   III. 

Public  Roads 242-243 

All  Public  Roads  should  be  kept  in  good  Order,  under  Governmental 
Supervision;  Road  Inspectors;  All  Roads  to  be  kept  Clean  and 
Safe. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Canals 243 

Advantage  of  Canals ;  Their  Cheapness,  Healthfulness ;  Their  Use- 
fulness for  Fish  Culture. 


XXXii  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PAGES 

Rivers  aio  Lakes 244-247 

Eivers  and  Lakes  Natural  Highways;  Necessity  of  Rigid  Inspection 
of  all  Vessels  by  Government  Officers;  All  Obstructions  to  Navi- 
gation must  be  Removed,  so  far  as  Practicable;  "What  has  been 
done  in  this  Respect;  Liiprovements  on  the  Missouri  and  Missis- 
sippi Rivers;  Eads's  Jetties;  Government  itself  should  make  all 
Improvements. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Railroads 247-270 

The  Value  of  Railroads  as  furnishing  Men  Avith  more  Time;   How 
the  Moneyed  Powers  and  Monopolies  utilized  that  Value  by  taking 
*      Control  of  the  Railway  Systems  of  the  Country;   The  Enormous 
"Wealth  and  Despotic  Power  they  derived  from  it;  How  the  Roads 
were   built  by  means   of  Stock,   Mortgages,    and    Money  Grants 
obtained  from  States,  Counties,  and  Cities  by  more  or  less  Fraud- 
ulent Means;  The  Suprerne  Iniquity  in  granting  to  the^e  Corpora- 
tions enormous  Grants  of  Public  Lands  belonging  to  the  People  of 
the  United  States;  The  two  Pacific  Railroads  in  Illustration;  The 
Enormous  Charges  levied  on  Freight  and  Passage  to  raise  Heavy 
Dividends;    Efforts  of    the   Legislatures  to   reduce  the  Rates   by 
curtailing   the    Power  of  declaring   Exorbitant  Dividends;    The 
Railroads  then  begin  to  "water"  their  Stock  and  buy  up  Legisla- 
tures;  The  Erie  Railroad  a  Notorious  Instance;   The  Erie,  New 
York  Central,  and  Pennsylvania  Central;  Their  System  of  "Pool- 
ing;"   Its   Origin;   Albert  Fink   the  Inventor;   The  extravagant 
Land  Grants  obtained  from  Congress  by  Corruption ;  The  Northern 
Pacific  Land  Grants ;  The  Credit  Mobilier  System  ;  The  Enormous 
Growth  of  the  Railroad  System  constantly  increasing  the  Danger 
from  it;  Tables  of  Growth  and  Revenue;  The  Belgian  and  French 
Policy  of  placing  all  Railroads  under  State  Control ;  The  Neces- 
sity of  adopting  that  Policy  in  our  own  Country;  The  Outrageous 
Despotism   of   the   California   Central   Pacific;    Col.   Broadhead; 
Government  should  have  Absolute  Control  of  Railroads  also  for 
"War  Contingencies;  AVhy  such  Control  is  not  likely  to  increase 
Official   Corrupiion;    Report  of  the   Commission  of  the  German 
Empire  on  the  Necessity  of  the  Control  of  Railwaj-s  by  the  Govern- 
ment; The  Inlluence  of  Railroad  Corporations  on  our  Judiciary ; 
The  Case. of  Murdoch  &  Clark  v.  Governor  Woodson  and  Attor- 
ney-Genoral  Ewing;    The   Constitutional  Points  involved;  Deci- 
sions and  Oiiinions. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXXIU 

TAXATION,  DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

PAGES 

The  Nature  of  Taxation 271-281 

Taxes  should  be  levied  only  to  an  Amount  sufficient  to  pay  the  Gov- 
ernment's Expenses;  The  Problem:  How  to  levy  impartiall}'  on 
all  Values  alike;  The  Notion  that  Land  should  be  the  Basis  of 
Taxation  a  Legal  Superstition  of  Feudalism ;  Moses'  Mode  of  Tax- 
ation; Taxation  levied  on  Land  as  a  Basis  a  Flagrant  Injustice; 
An  Income-Tax  alone  bears  equitably  upon  all ;  No  Income  to  be 
exempted;  Injustice  of  exempting  Government  Bonds  from  Tax- 
ation; Other  Instances  of  the  Injustice  of  the  present  System;  The 
Taxation  of  the  Missouri  Kailroads  in  illustration;  Table  showing 
the  Inequality  of  Taxation  in  the  United  States ;  The  New  York 
Assessors  on  the  Subject;  The  New  York  Tribune  on  an  Income- 
Tax;  An  Income-Tax  should  be  graduated  so  as  to  check  ex- 
travagantly large  Incomes ;  Danger  threatening  from  Excessive 
Accumulation  of  Wealth  in  few  Hands  in  Republican  Communi- 
ties; The  first  Roman  Triumvirate  an  Instance;  The  Case  of  Wil- 
liam H.  Vanderbilt;  Professor  Bluntchly  on  the  Subject;  The 
Power  of  Individuals  to  convey,  by  Gift  or  Devise,  their  Property, 
must  be  curtailed. 

CHAPTER   II. 

TuE  True  Rules  of  Taxation 282 

Adam  Smith's  Maxims  of  Taxation. 


CHAPTER   III. 

The  Limits  of  Taxation 283-290 

Government  should  Tax  only  to  the  Amount  of  its  Expenses;  No 
Taxation  should  be  levied  for  other  Purposes  —  such  as  Interest; 
All  States  and  Cities  henceforth  to  issue  no  more  Bonds ;  The  Enor- 
mous Expense  of  Borrowing  on  Interest;  The  Propriety  of  a  Fire- 
Tax  considered ;  How  the  System  of  Government  Controlling  the 
Fire-insurance  Business  operates  in  Germany;  Comparison  in 
that  Respect  between  Berlin  and  St.  Louis;  How  Government 
might  also  administer  the  Life-insurance  Business;  Isidor  Bush 
on  the  Benevolent  or  Cooperative  Life-Insuring  Societies;  The 
Iniquity  of  the  present  Patent-Right  System;  How  it  might  be 
reformed;  Table  of  its  Steady  Gmwth. 


XXXiv  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

PAGES 

The  Takiff  ' 291-299 

The  Tariff  another  Indirect  Mode  of  Taxation ;  -Unjust  as  a  Means 
of  Protection  to  Manufactures;  IneflBcient  as  a  Means  of  liaising 
Revenue;  England  and  France  show  the  "Wisdom  of  establishing 
Free  Trade;  Still  more  strikingly  our  own  States,  in  their  Free 
Interstate  Commercial  Relations ;  The  Fear  of  Direct  Taxation 
must  be  eradicated;  The  Inequitable  Phase  of  the  Tariif  illus- 
trated; How  it  cripples  our  Trade;  Our  Trade  with  Canada  as  an 
Illustration ;  Inequality  of  the  Operation  of  the  Tariff  as  between 
the  Eastern  and  Western  States :  The  Tariff  a  Relic  of  Feudalism ; 
It  should  be  altogether  done  away  with. 

CHAPTER   V. 

Concluding  Remarks 299-301 

An  Income-Tax  the  only  Equitable  Tax;  Taxation  annihilates  itself 
when  made  Oppressive ;  Hence  no  more  Interest-bearing  Debts. 

INTERCOMMUNICATION    BY    THE  PRESS. 

CHAFIER   I. 

The  Press 2*^2 

Origin  of  the  Newspaper;  Its  Primitive  Nature;  A  mere  Publication 
of  News. 

CHAFrER   11. 

The  Demoralization  of  the  Press 303-306 

The  Newspaper  becomes  an  Organ  of  Parties ;  The  Scurrilous  Per- 
sonal Editorial  replaces  the  Dignified  Political  Treatise;  Private 
Life  is  made  scandalously  public;  The  Newspaper  becomes  an 
Impersonality;  An  Organ  of  Abusive  Slander;  How  a  Number  of 
Newspapers  became  "The  Press." 

CHAPTER   III. 

A  Daily  National  Newspaper 306-309 

The  Necessity  of  establishing  a  Daily  National  Newspaper;  Its 
Functions;  The  Publication  of  News  and  of  all  Official  Informa- 
tion in  the  Hands  of  the  Government;  How  it  would  make  the 
Publication  of  an  Annual  Official  Census  possible ;  The  Inadequacy 
of  a  Ten-year  Census ;  The  Effect  of  such  a  Publication  on  neces- 
sitating Correct  Reports  from  the  various  Governmental  Depart- 
ments. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXXV 

POLICE,  PASSPORTS,  AND  REGISTRATION. 

CHAPTER   I. 

PACES 

The  Necessity  of  a  Federal  and  State  Police 310-ol3 

The  Criminal  Law  punishes  Crime :  The  Police  Law  seeks  to  prevent 
Crime;  The  latter,  therefore,  the  mbst  important;  Necessity  of  a 
strong  and  well-trained  Federal  and  State  Police;  The  Private 
Detective  Police  System  inefficient,  and  often  demoralizing; 
Inadequacy  of  our  present  Federal  and  Municipal  Police. 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  Necessity  of  Kegistration'  and  Passports 313-315 

No  Police  can  work  eflectually  unless  they  know  every  Person  living 
within  their  District;  Consequent  Necessity  of  Kegistration  and 
Passports;  How  to  carry  out  such  a  System;  Its  Advantages  in 
gecuring  the  Purity  of  Elections:  in  putting  an  end  to  "Mysteri- 
ous Disappearances." 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  Superiority  of  a  National  Police  over  a  National  Army  .  315-318 
A  large,  well-trained  Federal  Police  would  make  it  unnecessary  to 
keep  up  our  present  Army;  Expense  of  that  Army;  Why  a  Police 
Force  could  do  the  present  Duties  of  that  Army  better  than  a 
Military  Body;  The  Canadian  Frontier  Police  in  Illustration; 
The  Military  Schools  would  always  keep  alive  in  the  Nation  a  well- 
drilled  Military  Force  for  War  Contingencies. 


CAPITAL  AND  LABOR;  OR,  THE  RICH  AND  THE  POOR. 

CHAPTER   I. 

Analysis  of  the  Conflict 319-320 

Capital  and  Labor  not  two  Antagonistic  Factors  in  Human  Life, 
Labor  being  also  Capital;  The  real  Contlict  is  one  between  the 
Eich  and  the  Poor. 

CHAPTER   II. 

Historical  Origin  of  the  Conflict 320-323 

The  Conflict  inaugurated  by  Rousseau ;  Expounded  by  Adam  Smith  ; 
Elaborated  theoretically  chiefljMn  Germany;  It  is  not  a  Conflict 
between  Workingmen  and  their  Employers ;  De  Cassagnac  on  the 


XXXVl  TABLE    OF    GONTKNTS. 


Subject;  Man's  First  Condition  nomadic;  Rise  of  Agricultural 
Life;  The  Builders  of  Cities;  Meclianics;  Workiiigmen ;  Inter- 
change between  all  Classes  affected  by  a  Third  Class;  Merchants; 
Consequent  Exchange  of  the  Barter  for  a  Money-System;  Pecu- 
Ho-ity  of  the  Inequality'  amongst  Men  caused  by  Money. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Attempted  Practical  Solutions  of  the  Conflict  —  The  Social- 
istic GOVERXMKXT  OF  AxCIENT  PeRU  AND  THE  JeSUIT  GOV- 
ERNMENT OF  Paraguay 323-331 

The  Inca  Government  of  Ancient  Peru ;  Its  partial  Solution  of  the 
Conflict;  Prescott's  Account  of  their  System  of  Law  and  Govern- 
ment; The  Jesuitic  Rule  in  Paraguay  another  Instance  of  an 
Attempted  Solution  of  the  Conflict;  Sketch  of  their  Government. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Russian  Mir  Socialistic  Institution,   and  the   Tenure   of 

Land  in  Europe  generally  .......  331-334 

The  Mir  System  of  Russia  another  Attempt  at  a  Solution  of  the  Con- 
flict; Limited,  however,  only  to  Agricultural  Labor;  Mode  of  its 
Operation ;  A  Common  Possession  of  Lands ;  Its  Origin  to  be 
found  in  Central  Asia;  Introduced  into  Europe  bj- the  Indo-Ger- 
manic  Tribes,  on  their  Emigration  from  Asia;  Still  to  be  found  in 
parts  of  Europe;  Replaced  in  the  Middle  Ages  by  the  Feudal  Sys- 
tem of  Land  Tenure;  The  French  Revolution  puts  an  End  to  this 
Feudal  Land  Tenure :  first  in  France,  then  through  its  Armies 
nearly  all  over  Europe;  Great  Britain  the  only  Country  in  Europe 
left  wholly  untouched  by  the  French  Reform  in  the  System  of 
Land  Tenure. 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Historical  Origin  of  the  Conflict  —  Continued  .  .  .  335-336 
How  the  Influence  of  Money  on  widening  the  Distinction  between 
Men  steadily  grew;  The  Possession  of  Money  gives  Man  a  quasi 
Possession  of  the  Future;  The  Money-Miser  is  really  a  Visionary 
Idealist;  The  True  Idealist  works  out  his  Idea  on  the  Present;  How 
M  one}' led  to  Speculating  and  "Cornering"  of  all  Man's  Needs; 
The  Non-Possessor  of  Money  the  Sufferer. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Attempts  at  Theoretical  Solutions  of  the  Problem    .        .        .  337-342 
How  the  Theorists  have  tried  to  solve  the   Conflict;    The  Russian 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXX VU 

PAGES 

l^ihilists;  Bakonine  their  Foremost  Kepresentative ;  His  Russian 
Communistic  Catechism;  The  Influence  of  Russian  Nihilism  on 
Western  Europe  and  its  Literature  :  On  the  United  States ;  Bako- 
nine'sLife;  The  Bakonito  Congress  at  Verviers;  Its  Programme : 
Los  Daskamisados ;  War  upon  Property,  upon  the  Family,  upon 
God ;  The  German  Socialists ;  Their  Leaders  Marx  and  Liebknecht ; 
The  Programme  of  their  last  Geneva  Congress. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Historical  Origin  of  the  Conflict  —  Concluded    .        .        .  342-343 
How  the  Possessor  of  Money  increased  his  Power  over  the  Poor  by 
the  Invention  of  Interest  and  the  Organization  of  Corporations ; 
The  City  Mechanic,  in  his  Impotence,  becomes  a  Striker  —  the 
Agricultural  Laborer,  a  Tramp. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

Synthetical  Solution  of  the  Problem 344-348 

The  real  Solution  of  the  Problem,  to  be  found  in  a  Cooperative,  Fed- 
erative, Republican  Government,  established  on  the  Principles  of 
Liberty  and  Law;  Practical  Suggestions;  Let  all  Modes  of  Public 
Intercommunication  be  put  into  the  Hands  of  the  Government,  in 
order  to  furnish  Employment  to  the  Workless;  The  Supreme 
Necessity  of  establishing  an  Absolute-Money  System;  Prohibition 
of  all  Public  Debts  for  the  future ;  A  Graduated  Income-Tax,  and 
Prevention  of  the  Exorbitant  Accumulation  of  Wealth  in  the  Hands 
of  a  few;  Abolition  of  all  Standing  Armies;  H.  Richard,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  on  the  Cost  of  Standing  Armies;  Finally: 
Work  for  all  Men  and  Education  for  all  Men. 


PART    THIRD. 

DOMESTIC   RELATIONS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

Marriage 351-357 

Why  the  State  must  regulate  the  Marriage  Relation ;  Blunders  of 
Past  Legislation  on  the  Subject,  and  their  Causes  ;  The  Moral  View 
of  the  Relation ;  Why  the  Law  should  take  a  Different  View ;  Be- 
fore the  Law,  Men  and  Women  should  be  on  a  Footing  of  Perfect 


XXXViii  TABLK    OF    CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

Equalitj';  The  Church  may  hold  that  Woman  surrenders  her  Per- 
sonality in  Marriage,  but  Law  should  take  a  different  View;  In 
Law,  Marriage  is  only  a  Civil  Contract  — neither  more  nor  less; 
"What  constitutes  Marriage;  No  Special  Ceremony  necessary,  but 
all  Marriages  must  be  recorded  for  the  Use  of  the  State;  The 
Admirable  Kcgulations  of  the  Code  Napoleon  on  the  Subject; 
Divorces:  how  to  be  regulated;  How  to  check  Prostitution  and 
Seduction  ;  Polygamy  nowhere  to  be  Tolerated  ;  Woman  in  Early 
History  on  a  Footing  of  Equality  with  Man  ;  Oriental  Polygamy 
the  Cause  of  their  Degradation ;  Woman  in  the  Times  of  Chivalry ; 
The  Future  of  Woman, 

CHAPTER   II. 

Parents  and  Children 358-360 

The  State  must  educate  and  furnish  with  a  Means  of  Livelihood 
every  Parentless  Child;  The  same  applies  to  Children  having 
Parents,  with  the  Exception  that  in  their  Cases  the  State  has  no 
Compulsory  Right;  Parents  the  Natural  Protectors  and  Instructors 
of  their  Children  ;  After  a  certain  Age,  however,  such  Children  may 
appeal  to  the  State  for  an  Education;  How  Criminal  Children 
should  be  Treated. 

THE    END    OF   HISTORY. 

CHAPTER   I. 

The  Theocraticai,  Tendency  of  History 361-381 

History  begins  with  a  Primitive  Theocracy;  Passes  through  num- 
berless Changes  of  Forms  of  Government  of  Law;  Its  End  a 
Perfected  Theocracy;  Distinction  between  the  Legal  and  Moral 
Relations  of  Men  to  each  other;  The  Relation  between  Man  and 
the  Deity  the  highest;  Twofold  Character  of  that  Relation; 
An  Internal  Manifestation  of  the  Deity,  and  an  External  Crys- 
■  tallization  thereof,  known  as  the  Church;  The  Direct  Relation 
between  Man  and  God;  Why  the  Larger  Part  of  Mankind, 
the  Uninspired  Race,  first  made  the  Worship  of  God  a  Sun- 
Worship;  Osiris,  Dionysos,  Ormuzd;  Moses  on  Sun- Worship; 
Father  Clemens;  Change  in  the  Character  of  Religious  Ideas; 
The  One  God,  Universal  of  the  Human  Race,  changed  into  a 
National  God:  the  God  of  Love  into  a  God  of  Wrath;  Hence 
the  Barbarism  of  Human  Sacrifices  to  appease  the  Deity;  The 
Bel  of  Babylon,  the  Shiva  of  India,  the  Huitzli  Putzli  of  the  Aztecs ; 
The  Horror  of  a  Wrathful  God  leads  to  the  Conception  of  a  Young, 
Redeeming  God;  The  Egyptian  Doctrine  on  this  Subject;  Dr.  Ed- 
ward Roeth;  Pythagoras  Transfers  it  to  Greece;  The  upoq  hiyot;; 
Egyptian  Hieroglyphics;    How  the  Egyptian  Osiris   becomes   in 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXXIX 

FACES 

Greece  Dionysos;  His  Descent  into  Hell,  and  Kedemption  of  the 
Fallen;  Monotheism  the  Religion  of  all  Primitive  People;  Lack 
of  Belief  in  Immortality  amongst  the  Jews ;  The  Doctrine  of 
Immortality  the  Corner-Stone  of  all  Pagan  Religions;  Dr.  Hugo 
Delff  on  the  Difference  between  Hellenism  and  Judaism  ;  Why  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  Accepted  Christianity  more  I'eadilj'  than  the 
Jews ;  The  Doctrine  of  Vicarious  Atonement ;  The  Doctrine  of 
Revelation ;  The  True  Doctrine  of  Immortality ;  An  Everlasting 
Inspiration  of  Man  by  the  One  Spiritual  Life;  Perennially  Attain- 
ing Higher  Perfection  and  Happiness ;  Plato,  Aristotle,  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  Angelas  Silesius,  Hegel ;  The  Fundamental  Distinction 
between  the  Christian  and  all  other  Religions ;  In  Christianity',  God, 
Freedom,  and  Immortality  three  Facts;  Christianity  the  Abso- 
lute Religion;  Insufficiency  of  the  Oriental  Religions;  Zoroaster, 
Brahma;  Hegel  on  the  Brahmin  Religion;  Buddhism  the  most 
blase  of  all  Oriental  Religions;  Nirvana:  Its  Interpretation  by 
Sir  Charles  Colebrooke,  Max  Mueller,  and  Koeppen;  Buddhism  in 
China;  Confucius  in  China;  General  Characteristics  of  the  Chi- 
nese ;  The  Christian  Religion  alone  is  the  Religion  of  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity, 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  DANTrERs  of  a  Priestcraft  Theocracy 381-387 

The  Historical  Existence  of  Religion  as  a  Church  ;  Building  of  Tem- 
ples; Rise  of  Priestcraft;  Priestly  Love  of  Power;  Conflict  be- 
tween Temjwral  and  Ecclesiastical  Power ;  Kant  and  Rosenkranz 
on  the  Subject;  Kant  on  the  Relation  of  Church  Service  to  Pure 
Religion ;  Why  Priestcraft  constantly  threatens  Collisions  between 
the  Church  and  the  State ;  The  Supreme  Necessity  to  keep  both 
forever  separate;  How  this  can  best  be  achieved  in  our  Republic; 
The  most  Potent  Agent  to  be  found  is  the  Extension  and  Develop- 
ment of  our  Public  Schools ;  Free  Communion  with  the  Deity  the 
End  of  our  Race. 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


PART    FIRST. 


HISTOKICAL: 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   OEIGIN   OF  HISTORY. 

Perhaps  no  other  subject  of  pure  speculation  has  ever  engrossed 
the  thought  of  manldnd  so  much  as  this:  What  is  the  origin  and 
history  of  man,  from  his  first  appearance  on  earth  unto  the  present 
day?  Where  and  in  what  degree  of  culture  did  he  first  make  himself 
known  on  earth ;  and  ii\  what  manner  did  he  arrive  at  the  stage  of 
culture  which  he  now  occupies  ?  Has  he  fallen  or  ascended  ?  Was  he 
originally  a  man  in  direct  communion  with  God,  or  a  monkey  stretch- 
ing out  its  paws  to  reach  that  communion  ?  In  answer  to  these  con- 
tradictory questions  there  arise  the  arguments  of  two  parties,  the  one 
of  which  says :  Man  is  nothing  but  an  evolutionized  creature  of  the 
common  dust-speck  that  you  see  dancing  in  the  sunbeam  before  your 
eye ;  and  the  other  of  which  holds  that  Man  is  a  being  fallen  from 
original  God-imageness  into  his  present  state  of  sin  and  misery. 

Philosophically,  we  know  that  every  theory  or  proposition  advanced 
in  regard  to  any  subject  finds  its  complement  in  a  directly  oppo- 
site proposition.  Thus,  for  instance,  no  self-consciousness  can  be 
thought  without  its  complement  of  a  non-self-conscious  matter.  Or, 
to  transfer  the  illustration  to  another  purely  mental  science:  the 
construction  of  a  triangle  or  a  square  will  always  go  hand  in  hand 
with  that  of  a  circle. 

In  the  physical  world,  again,  we  also  have  always,  in  the  same  way, 
two  contradictory  phenomena  at  every  point  of  time :  the  full-grown 
planet  of  the  earth  and  the  new-born  meteors,  the  nebulte  of  the 
Orion  and  the  Orion  itself. 

Search  back  as  far  as  you  please  into  the  geological  history  of  the 
earth,  and  it  makes  no  difference  whether  you  take  billions,  milUons, 
or  thousands  of   years  for  your  computation,   you  wiU  always  be 

(3) 


4  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

historically  compelled  to  stop  at  an  historically  given  period,  beyond 
which  only  a  wild  and  disordered  phantasy  will  pretend  it  possible 
to  penetrate. 

May  it  not,  therefore,  appear  most  proper  to  sum  up  the  two  oppo- 
site views  regarding  the  origin  of  man's  existence  on  earth  in  this 
synthetical  manner :  We  cannot  possibly  think  a  monad  evolution- 
izing  into  a  primitive  man,  without  at  the  same  time  supplementing- 
the  thought  by  the  conception  of  a  complete,  rational  man,  in  the 
fullest  possession  of  his  divine  possibiUties ;  and  history  bears  out 
this  \'iew.  The  earliest  authentic  record  of  our  race  represents- 
Adam  as  the  prototype  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  surrounded  by  a  race 
of  men  growing  up  as  brutal  as  He  was  celestial;  even  as  the 
divinely  inspired  Saviour  appeared  in  the  midst  of  a  debased,  sinful, 
earth-loving  race  of  men,  whom  He  came  to  teach  the  divine  law  of 
redemption  and  salvation  through  faith  and  love. 

The  philosophers  had  taught  that  the  soul  of  the  self-conscious- 
man  would  become  ever-living  by  the  death  of  the  body ;  that  the 
law  of  inspiration  from  the  divine  fountain  was  fulfilled  by  the  ever- 
continuing  living  of  the  divinely  inspired  human  being.  ^  But  the 
divinely  inspired  God-Man  taught  the  race  how  to  attain  the  ever- 
lasting life  of  happiness  and  activity  by  a  living  faith  and  belief 
in  God,  and  by  loving  God  "with  all  thy  heart,  and  soul,  and  mind,, 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

Historically,  no  one  can  point  out  the  original  appearance  of  man 
upon  the  earth.  The  very  nature  of  the  case  precludes  the  possibiUty 
of  such  an  historical  record.  But  it  is  very  certain,  both  from  phi- 
losophical reasonings  and  by  the  records  of  history,  that,  at  least 
after  the  flood,  man  appeared  in  various  parts  of  the  globe  at  one 
and  the  same  time  approximately.  In  Mesopotamia,  BabA'-lon,  Egypt, 
and  Canaan  there  were  men  found  in  full  communion  with  God ;  in 
other  lands,  as  simpl}'-  uninspired  idolaters.  The  Bible  traces  out  this- 
dupUcate  of  man's  history  very  fully. 2  In  short,  to  comprehend 
man's  existence  on  this  planet,  we  must  assume  that  he  primarily 
existed  not  only  in  the  dupUcate  form  of  male  and  female,  but  also 


1  Plato,  Phfeclo.  Piazzi  Smith,  LL.D.,  Royal  Astronomer  of  Scotland,  the 
«'  Great  Pyramid  of  Jeesah"  (ed.  1877),  on  the  inspired  design  and  construc- 
tion of  the  pyramid,  4,043  years  ago.     A  miracle  in  stone. 

2  Genesis,  Chaps.  X.-XX. 


/ 


HISTORICAL.  5 

under  the  duplicate  form  of  two  classes  or  races  of  men ;  the  one 
being  of  a  higher  type,  and  living  in  liberty  under  law,  and  the  other 
of  downward  gradations  to  the  lowest  possible  t3q5e  of  man,  in  a 
state  of  slavery  under  unchecked  despotism.  The  traces  of  these 
two  races  are  manifest  in  every  part  of  the  globe.  In  the  earliest 
historical  account  of  the  Bible  we  meet  the  records  of  the  men  of 
light  and  life  bringing  instruction  to  the  children  of  darkness  and 
death ;  in  ancient  Egypt  we  have  the  highest  culture  and  inspiration 
of  the  age,  in  conjunction  with  the  most  degrading  form  of  idolatry 
and  slavery ;  in  Peru,  the  Incas  brought  civilization  from  the  south, 
from  the  lake  of  Titicaca,  to  the  benighted  inhabitants  of  the  more 
northern  regions ;  as  to  Mexico,  it  was  brought  from  the  north  by 
the  Toltecs  ;  in  the  vastly  populated  domains  of  Asia  we  find  in  every 
separate  country  two  distinct  peoples,  so  to  speak,  the  one  unspeak- 
a,bly  debased,  the  other  of  rare  culture,  — whether  we  turn  to  China, 
Japan,  or  India.  The  higher  race,  in  every  instance  known  to  us, 
ascribed  its  advancement  to  direct  inspiration,  and  enforced  upon 
the  lower  race  the  unshakable  belief  that  they  stood  in  direct  com- 
munion with  the  Godhead.  In  the  historical  records  that  have  passed 
down  to  us  from  the  most  ancient  traditions  and  writings,  we  find  — ■ 
when  we  ignore  the  younger  civilization  of  the  American  and  Aus- 
tralian continents  —  two  mighty  peoples :  the  one,  the  Aryans,  occu- 
pying Central  Asia,  and  possessed  with  an  ineradicable  tendency  to 
wander  westward.  To  the  Aryans  Europe  owes  its  population.  The 
other,  the  Egyptians,  settled  along  the  Nile ;  and  to  them  Europe 
owes  its  ciciUzation.  The  whole  culture  of  Greece,  which  culture 
civilized  all  Europe,  came  direct  from  the  swarthy  inhabitants  of 
Egypt  and  Ethiopia;  and  they  had  been  taught  mathematics  and 
ethics  by  the  contemporaries  of  the  builders  of  the  great  pyramid  at 
Jeesah. 

But  between  these  two  mighty  races  a  third  race  arises  in  history, 
the  Semitic,  occupying  the  bounteous  district  of  land  between  the 
Persian  and  Arabic  Seas  westward  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  ; 
comprising  Mesopotamia,  Arabia,  Syria,  Phosnicia,  and  Canaan.  It 
is  of  this  third  race  that  our  Bible  speaks  chiefiy,  and  to  it  that  we 
owe  what  is  most  dear  to  us:  the  origin  of  man's  history.  For  the 
first  race,  the  Aryan,  is  traced  by  Moses  down  to  Japhet;  the 
second,  the  Egyptian,  to  Ham ;  and  the  third,  the  so-called  Semitic 
race,  to  Shem,  the  ancestor  of  Abraham,  and  through  him  of  David 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


and  Jesus  Christ.  Of  these  three  races  the  Aryan  race  is  the  most 
independently  distinct,  and,  especially  in  its  language,  exhibits  the 
most  original  structure  ;  whereas  the  Semitic  and  Ethiopic  languages 
betray  at  the  first  glance  close  relationship. 

Now,  a  portion  of  this  Semitic  race,  residing  then  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, seems  to  have  wandered  at  a  very  early  stage  of  history  west- 
wardly  to  Palestine,  or  the  land  of  Canaan,  as  it  was  then  called, 
and  under  the  patriarchal  rule  of  Abraham,  to  have  established  itself 
there ;  keeping  alive  the  traditions  of  a  direct  divine  inspiration  as 
communicated  to  the  first  parents  of  mankind.  Being  closely  allied, 
as  above  stated,  to  the  Egyptian  race,  by  language  as  well  as  family 
connection,  Abraham  went,  under  the  pressure  of  a  famine,  —  to 
which  scourge  Canaan  seems  for  many  years  to  have  been  sub- 
jected, —  to  Egypt,  and  there  seems  to  have  enjoyed  close  relationship 
with  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  country.  Nor  does  he  appear  ever 
to  have  lost  sight  of  the  primitive  divine  monotheistic  faith,  which 
had  been  imbibed  by  him  in  Mesopotamia ;  though  his  cousin  Lot  did 
lose  sight  of  it,  and  the  only  man  whom  he  is  reported  to  have  found 
reared  in  the  same  faith  was  the  priest  Melchisedec. 

Under  Abraham's  son  Isaac,  and  his  grandson  Jacob,  the  monothe- 
istic faith  gradually  dwindled  away,  and  it  was  only  revived  under  the 
extraordinary  influence  of  Moses,  when  it  recommenced  its  conflict 
with  the  "  children  of  death  and  darkness."  It  is  a  portrayal  of  this 
conflict  which  constitutes  history.  For,  as  Hegel  aptly  remarks,  his- 
tory is  simply  the  development  of  mankind  into  a  self-consciousness 
of  freedom.  It  describes,  thus,  a  complete  circle  ;  starting  from  the 
unconscious  fulness  of  freedom  in  the  children  of  light  and  fife,  — 
the  inspired  race,  as  I  have  called  it,  —  and  by  an  immense  struggle  — 
a  world-struggle  —  arising  through  the  medium  of  the  lower  race 
into  the  highest  perfection  of  mankind,  wherein  man  not  onty  is 
free,  but  also  knows  himself  to  be  free,  with  a  well-grounded  con- 
sciousness of  a  future  life  of  everlasting  activity  and  happiness. 
We  of  the  present  age  stand  as  yet  but  on  the  threshold  of  this 
struggle,  which,  indeed,  from  other  grounds  will  be  an  infinite  one. 
For  this  self-consciousness  consists  not  only  in  arriving  at  a 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  whole  world  of  the  one  God,  and 
man's  relation  to  Him,  but  of  a  free  development  of  all  the  fac- 
ulties he  has  grafted  in  us  to  attain  the  greatest  good,  happiness, 
inspiration,  beauty,  wisdom,  and  love,  of  which  man's  organization  is 


HISTORICAL.  < 

capable ;  that  is  to  say,  of  State  organization  and  law,  of  art  and 
physical  science,  of  philosophy  and  religion,  —  in  short,  a  develop- 
ment to  an  infinite  degree  of  our  infinite  faculties. 

And  should  any  one  ask  how  it  could  possibly  have  come  to  pass 
that  the  comparatively  few  of  the  inspired  race  should  have  been  able, 
in  these  six  thousand  years  of  our  world-struggle,  not  only  to  have 
held  its  own  against  the  lower  race,  but  to  have  made  the  astounding 
progress  which  Christian  and  Hebrew  civilization  attest  this  day  in  all 
parts  of  the  globe,  I  answer  by  pointing  to  that  inexplicable  phenom- 
enon in  mankind  which  man  calls  reverence,  and  of  which  Kant  saj^s : 

"Far  from  being  a  feeling  of  enjoyment,  reverence  is  rather  a 
feelino;  to  which  we  submit  very  unwillingly  in  respect  to  another 
person.  We  always  trj'-  to  discover  something  which  might  diminish 
this  feeling  in  us,  some  kind  of  fault,  to  hold  us  harmless  against  the 
humiliation  which  such  an  example  inflicts  upon  us.  Even  the  dead, 
particularly  if  their  example  appears  to  be  beyond  our  reach,  are  not 
always  secure  against  this  criticism.  Nay,  the  very  moral  law  itself, 
in  its  solemn  majesty,  is  exposed  to  this  tendency  in  man  to  escape 
the  reverence  it  compels.  Or,  why  that  constant  desire  to  drag  it 
down  to  the  level  of  an  ordinary  inclination,  and  that  persistent 
endeavor  to  make  it  a  favorite  prescription  for  our  own  advantage 
and  enjoyment,  unless  it  is  to  escape  that  terrif^dng  reverence  which 
holds  up  to  us  so  severely  our  own  unworthiness  ?  Yet,  again,  there 
is  so  little  of  disagreeableness  in  the  feeling,  that  if  we  have  once 
thrown  aside  our  self-merit,  and  have  admitted  that  reverence  to  prac- 
tical influence  upon  us,  we  can  never  get  satiated  with  the  glory  of 
this  law ;  and  our  soul  seems  to  elevate  itself  in  the  same  degree  as  it 
sees  this  holy  law  elevated  above  itself  and  its  sinful  nature." 

With  this  feeling,  true  reUgious  inspiration  has  conquered  the 
world.  It  was  reverence  before  the  mysterious  inspirations  of  God 
and  the  divine  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  following  brief  historical  sketches  of  the  most  prominent 
nations  of  the  world  I  have  attempted  to  give  an  outline  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  this  world-struggle  has  exhibited  itself  in  various  nation- 
alities ;  not  in  its  religious  form,  for  that  lies  without  the  purpose  of 
this  book,  but  in  the  attempts  it  has  made  to  secure  for  its  proper 
development  a  proper  form  of  government,  from  its  earliest  appear- 
ance in  the  world  to  its  present  highest  development  in  our  own 
country.     These  sketches  will  the  better  enable  the  reader  to  under- 


S  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

stand  why  even  this  highest  development  should  suffer  from  the 
deficiencies  that  I  shall  then  point  out,  and  to  comprehend  the  funda- 
mental principles  laid  down  by  me  for  a  just  government,  with  their 
full  application  to  all  the  departments  of  a  political  State. 


CHAPTER    n. 

THE   MOSAIC   CODE. 


Of  all  the  attempts  of  antiquity  to  establish  a  government  that 
should  secure  the  greatest  good,  happiness,  and  wisdom  to  men, 
and  bear  equally  upon  all  persons  in  the  State,  the  most  perfect  and 
successful  was  the  oldest  of  which  we  have  record,  —  the  legislation 
of  Moses. 

A  Hebrew  of  the  tribe  of  the  Levites,  having  fled  from  Egypt  into 
Midian,  where  he  had  exiled  himself  for  forty  years  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Jethro,  a  priest,  whose  daughter  he  married,  Moses  con- 
ceived there  the  idea  to  found  a  State  with  a  government  of  law  of 
di-\TLne  origin;  to  realize  those  objects  of  the  greatest  good,  happi- 
ness, and  wisdom ;  and  selecting  the  Hebrews,  who  had  been  nomadic 
tribes  for  several  centuries  before  their  arrival  in  Egypt,  where  they 
had  since  been  enslaved,  he  hit  upon  the  bold  design  of  emancipating 
them  from  servitude  and  leading  them  out  of  Egypt  into  the  land  of 
Canaan,  where  he  purposed  to  found  a  government  of  law  that  should 
apply  equally  to  all  citizens. 

The  law-giver  was  to  be  Jehovah,  the  interpreter  between  Jehovah 
and  the  people  was  to  be  Aaron,  the  brother  of  Moses,  and  the  tribe 
of  the  Le\ites,  of  the  family  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  was  to  hold 
exclusively  the  office  of  the  priestly  order,  which  under  this  theo- 
cratic form  of  government  was  necessarily  also  the  temporal  govern- 
mental order,  for  all  time  to  come ;  whilst  out  of  their  order  was  to 
be  chosen  the  high-priest  or  chief  magistrate,  who  was  to  interpret 
the  will  of  God  to  His  announced  chosen  people,  with  whom  He  in- 
tended to  dwell  in  a  tabernacle  built  for  His  worship,  and  wherein  the 
ark  of  His  covenant  was  to  be  placed,  within  the  veil  of  His  holy 
temple. 


HISTOKICAL.  9^ 

Judges  were  to  be  selected  from  all  the  tribes,  according  to  their 
attainments  and  wisdom,  to  sit  in  judgment  in  all  the  actions  and 
suits  between  the  people,  subject  to  a  final  appeal  to  the  high-priest, 
who  was  the  chief  executive  officer, — civil,  judicial,  political,  and 
religious,  —  and  who,  moreover,  might  be  the  military  leader  in  time  of 
war.  Every  trilie  regulated  its  own  domestic  affairs  in  all  other  mat- 
ters. The  whole  form  of  government  thus  established  by  Moses  was, 
therefore,  that  of  a  federative  republic. 

With  such  a  great  design  of  a  form  of  government,  altogether  new 
for  his  time,  and  with  a  no  less  wonderfully  elaborate  code  of  laws 
to  carry  it  out,  prepared  during  his  forty  years  of  exile  in  the  land 
of  Midian,  this  hero  came  down  to  Lower  Egypt,  at  the  age  of  eighty 
years,  to  deliver  his  people  from  bondage,  and  to  found  a  model  gov- 
ernment, under  the  direct  protection  and  rule  of  Jehovah,  whose 
voice  he  had  heard  in  the  burning  bush  on  Mount  Horeb,  summoning 
him  to  deliver  the  people  whom  He  had  chosen  to  dwell  with  on  earth, 
and  to  govern  them  by  divine  laws  and  authority,  through  the  agency 
of  a  high-priest. 

He  delivered  them  from  slavery,  led  them  through  the  Red  Sea, 
announced  to  them  the  divine  law  from  Mount  Sinai,  purified  them 
by  daily  instruction  for  forty  years  in  the  desert  and  the  wilder- 
ness, approaching  the  land  of  Canaan  by  circuitous  routes  through 
a  terril)le  pilgrimage  of  forty  years,  that  was  necessary  to  renew  the 
Hel)rew  slaves  of  Egypt  by  new  men  and  women  born  in  this  desert 
and  wilderness,  —  a  new  race  that  might  be  obedient  to  the  law  and 
enured  to  the  art  and  hardships  of  war ;  and,  having  accomplished 
this  object,  he  ascended  the  height  of  Pisgah,  gazed  upon  the  distant 
land  of  Canaan,  and  died  alone  on  Nebo's  lonely  mountain,  in  the 
land  of  Moab,  where  the  great  law-giver  sleeps  in  an  unknown  grave. 

The  wonderful  wisdom  of  Moses  in  laying  down  the  fundamental 
princii:»les  of  law  for  the  just  government  of  the  people  was  not  fully 
appreciated  until  some  time  after  his  death,  when  the  effects  of  his  sys- 
tem showed  its  results  in  the  elevation  of  the  Hebrews  from  the  most 
abject  slavery  to  a  condition  of  comparative  freedom  and  happiness, 
under  the  government  of  the  high-priest  and  the  judges  that  admin- 
istered the  law  according  to  the  code  prepared  by  Moses. 

The  government  thus  established  was  in  its  natiire  'strictly  theo- 
cratic, and  in  its  character  the  only  one  of  the  Ivind  that  has  ever 
been  established  in  the  history  of  mankind ;  God  himself  being  the 


10  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

leader  and  king  of  His  claosen  people,  the  pi-iesthood  alone  holding 
communion  with  Him  in  the  sacredness  of  the  tabernacle,  and  yet  the 
people  ruling  themselves,  and  organized  in  the  only  rational  form  of 
government,  which  is  that  of  a  federative  republic.  For  it  seems 
evident  that  Moses  intended  originally  to  confine  the  communication 
of  the  priests  with  Jehovah  in  the  main  to  spiritual  matters,  to  ele- 
vate their  moral  nature,  and  bring  them  into  that  direct  contact  with 
the  fountain  of  inspiration  which  alone  can  raise  man  from  his  degra- 
dation and  lowliness. 

This  grand  conception  of  a  government  derived  from  God  himself, 
the  IQng  of  the  Hebrews,  —  immortal,  invisible,  all-powerful,  and  all- 
sufficient,  —  gave  that  people  a  confidence  in  their  Divine  Protector 
that  made  them  invincible  for  more  than  four  hundred  years. 

But  this  theocracy,  though  very  powerful,  was  not  strong  enough 
to  resist  the  corrupting  influences  of  wealth,  luxury,  and  absolute 
dominion.  The  vast  difference  between  the  social  station  and  pre- 
rogative rights  of  the  priesthood  and  the  people  of  the  other  tribes 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  monarchy  and  royal  prerogative,  which 
ended  in  the  downfall  of  the  State  and  the  dispersion  of  the  chosen 
people  to  the  four  wdnds  of  heaven. 

Before  such  theocratic  prerogative  power  the  freedom  of  the  indi- 
vidual Hebrew  became  a  reproach.  The  people  of  the  tribes  were 
no  longer  freemen,  but  slaves  of  power  and  prerogative. 

The  priesthood,  the  highest  office  in  the  State,  from  whose  ranks 
the  high-priest,  the  chief  ruler,  was  chosen,  being  confined  to  a  single 
tribe,  the  family  of  Levi,  that  family  thus  became  the  fountain  of  all 
honor,  power,  and  profit  in  the  State.  This  aristocratic  feature  in 
the  Mosaic  constitution  finally  destroyed  the  civil  liberty  of  the  Jews 
and  overthrew  the  State,  while  the  changes  made  in  the  Mosaic  code 
by  this  hierarchy  for  its  self-interest  uprooted  the  morality  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  and  thus  assisted  in  the  final  dispersion  and  ruin  of  the 
chosen  people. 

In  this  way  the  attempt  of  Moses  to  organize  a  State  constitution 
for  the  realization  of  the  highest  good,  happiness,  and  freedom  of  the 
people  of  his  race  resulted  in  a  failure  ;  and  the  most  admirable  at- 
tempt to  form  a  State  organization,  based  upon  the  only  true  prin- 
ciple of  a  federative  republic,  wherein  every  citizen  was  to  be  equally 
protected  in  his  rights,  and  raised  to  the  highest  standard  of  excel- 
lence by  an  admirably  contrived  system  of  sanitary  regulations,  and 


HISTORICAL.  11 

such  moral  education  as  the  age  was  capable  of  after  fifteen  centuries, 
finally  shattered,  from  the  working  out  of  the  principles  of  latent 
despotism  contained  in  the  hierarchial  element  introduced  into  the 
plan  of  the  republic  by  its  ilhistrious  founder. 

It  was  by  reason  of  the  perpetual  conflict  introduced  b}^  this  ele- 
ment in  the  Mosaic  code  between  the  laws  applied  to  the  people  and 
physical  nature,  and  the  prerogative  powers  of  the  priesthood,  that 
the  civil  fabric  of  the  federative  republic  continued  only  about  four 
hundred  years,  from  the  conquest  of  Palestine,  in  the  year  1500  b.  c, 
to  the  establishment  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy,  in  the  year  1100  b.  c. 
It  was  not  important  to  the  final  failure  of  the  Mosaic  code  of  gov- 
ernment whether  the  high-priest  or  a  king  exercised  the  supreme 
power ;  it  was  this  despotic  feature  of  the  code  itself  which  eventu- 
ally, in  its  results,  overthrew  the  liberties  of  the  people  and  expelled 
them  from  the  land  of  Judea,  making  them  wanderers  over  the  earth 
ever  since. 

And  3^et,  in  despite  of  the  downfall  of  his  political  fabric,  what  a 
legislator  must  that  man  have  been  who  was  able  to  raise  tribes  that 
had  sunk  down  to  the  loAvest  condition  of  slavery,  to  a  moral  con- 
sciousness and  height  which  has  kept  the  Jews  a  separate  organiza- 
tion to  this  day !  All  other  historical  national  bodies  have  perished  ; 
only  the  Jew  has  survived.  Nay,  more :  having  been  for  the  second 
tim-e  cast  down  to  the  lowest  depth  of  degradation,  expelled  from 
their  native  country,  and  scattered  over  the  world,  the  Jews  have 
elevated  themselves,  sheerly  by  dint  of  their  own  moral  power  and 
self-consciousness,  to  a  position  which  compels  wonder  and  admira- 
tion. It  was  the  Jew  that  brought  to  the  illiterate  Christians  of  the 
West,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  lore  of  the  Arabians,  their  mathemat- 
ics, and  their  Aristotelian  metaphysics  ;  it  was  the  Jew  that  dictated 
to  them  the  terms  on  which  to  borrow  money,  and  invented  for  them, 
the  system  of  banldng ;  it  was  the  Jew  that  thus  gradually  raised 
himself  to  the  supreme  power  of  the  European  world,  the  money- 
power,  controlling  even  now  the  destinies  of  empires ;  and  it  is  the 
Jew  who  has  finally,  in  our  day,  subdued  and  made  subject  to  one  of 
his  representatives,  the  Baron  von  Renter,  that  same  empire  of  Per- 
sia where  his  forefathers  mourned  as  captives  under  the  willow-trees, 
and  wept  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon. 


12  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

CHAPTER    m. 

THE    GREEK   REPUBLICS. 

In  some  way  or  another,  that  same  element  of  a  prerogative  despot- 
ism which  overthrew  the  Mosaic  State  has  proved  the  destruction  of 
every  hitherto  established  form  of  government.  And  this  of  neces- 
sity. For,  the  object  of  a  State  organization  being  to  apply  laws 
equally  to  all  citizens,  the  very  conception  of  a  prerogative  is  at  war 
with  the  conception  of  such  a  State,  and  must  necessarily  destroy  it 
and  again  be  destro^'ed  by  it.  Every  political  contradiction  must  die, 
by  its  very  nature. 

In  the  Judean  republic,  the  most  successful  of  ancient  times,  it 
was,  as  has  been  shown,  the  hierarchical  element  which  destro3^ed  the 
State.  The  Greek  so-called  republics  are  scarcely  worthy  of  political 
examination.  No  people  had  less  conception  of  State  organization 
than  that  people,  Avhich  from  its  own  high  indi\adual  culture  needed 
it,  indeed,  least ;  but,  it  might  also  be  said,  needed  it  most,  as  a  fitting 
frame  and  enclosure  for  the  world  of  beauty  which  it  produced.  For, 
with  a  fitting  government  of  law,  this  marvellously  gifted  people  might 
have  achieved  results  far  more  extensive  than  it  did  achieve,  and 
saved  mankind  the  centuries  of  retrogression  consequent  upon  the 
downfall  of  all  forms  of  government  which  followed  the  irruption  of 
the  Huns  and  Goths  into  Europe. 

But  the  Greeks  had  an  aversion  to  all  fixed  form  of  government, 
an  aversion  as  great  as  that  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  our  own  country, 
whose  political  mode  of  living  has  indeed  an  extraordinary  resem- 
blance to  that  of  the  early  Greeks  ;  Agamemnon,  for  instance,  ha\dng 
about  all  the  power,  and  not  a  whit  more,  of  an  Indian  chief.  They 
could  not  bring  themselves  to  acknowledge  a  general  government  of 
law,  in  the  pride  of  their  individualit}'-,  and  consequently  they  per- 
ished. 

Thus,  as  the  Mosaic  government,  in  its  first  grand  results  of  rais- 
ing a  tribe  of  miserable  slaves,  ignorant,  filth}^,  and  lawless  in  the 
highest  degree,  to  a  condition  of  remarkable  strength,  intelligence, 
and  political  culture,  shows  the  power,  effectiveness,  and  necessity 
of  a  strictly  defined  State  organization,  established  upon  pure  prin- 
ciples of  reason,  so  the  history-  of  the  Greek  republics  shows  us,  on 


HISTORICAL.  13 

the  other  hand,  the  negative  of  all  this,  and  how  the  most  gifted  of 
all  the  people  of  the  earth  perished  necessarily  because  it  disregarded 
the  need  of  law. 

The  opposite  of  the  Jews  in  all  respects,  the  Greek  people  had 
formed  itself  out  of  all  sorts  of  elements  of  humanity ;  contracting 
no  fixed  character,  no  fixed  ties  of  tribe  or  nationality,  Init  leaving 
everything  free,  j^outhful,  and  individual.  Their  ideal  is  represented 
in  Achilles,  the  foremost  knight  of  that  age  ;  and  as  in  the  knightly 
period  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  crusades  formed  the  first  great  bond 
of  union  for  these  individual  fighters,  so  the  siege  of  Troy  first  com- 
bined the  Hellenes  into  one  people,  but  without  any  definite  organ- 
ization and  law,  each  being  his  own  law-giver.  This  disorganized 
condition  lasted  for  a  long  time,  and  in  it  the  first  sign  of  prerog- 
ative showed  itself  as  the  cities  of  Greece  rose  by  commerce  and 
trade  to  importance  and  power.  For  a  long  time  the  acquisition  of 
more  territory  by  colonization  checked  the  growth  of  despotism,  as 
it  has  done  and  does  now  in  our  country ;  but  the  power  of  money 
and  monopoly,  which  all  trade  and  commerce,  not  regulated  by  wise 
and  just  laws,  invariably  produces,  finally  asserted  itself,  and  then 
there  arose  tyrants  in  the  cities.  Moses  had  purposely  prohibited 
commerce  to  his  own  people,  and  by  that  measure,  as  well  as  by  his 
judicious  laws  of  bankruptcy,  made  money-despotisms  impossible  in 
the  State.  Sparta  was  probably  the  only  State  in  Greece  which  re- 
tained a  republican  form  of  government  for  any  length  of  time,  under 
the  laws  of  Lycurgus,  who  tried  to  bring  about  the  same  result  which 
Moses  effected  by  his  prohibition  of  commerce  and  his  laws  of  bank- 
ruptcy, in  introducing  and  establishing  iron  as  the  only  allowable 
money,  and  prohil)iting  the  sale  of  property.  This  virtually  excluded 
the  spirit  of  commerce  from  Sparta,  and  thereby  checked  the  devel- 
opment of  moneyed  monopolies. 

All  the  other  cities  of  Greece  changed  from  republican  forms  of 
government  to  despotisms  alternatel}'',  the  people  heeding  little  their 
political  combination,  nor  the  laws  which  were  to  afford  tliem  pro- 
tection, in  which  unconcern  the  establishment  of  slavery  as  well  as 
the  virtual  absence  of  moiiogamic  family  life  materially  assisted. 
Art,  beauty,  culture,  and  individual  independence  in  the  enjoyment 
of  these  things,  absorbed  all  the  attention  of  the  Greek  citizen.  It 
was  not  the  law  itself,  but  the  tone  of  A'oice  in  whicli  it  was  an- 
nounced, the  gesture  which  accompanied  its  enunciation,  that  deter- 


14  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

mined  its  acceptance.  A  finer  modulated  tone  and  more  expressive 
and  beautiful  gesture  of  another  orator  caused  to-morrow  its  repeal. 

Nevertheless,  no  sooner  did  the  Persian  ruler  approach,  with  his 
terrific  army  of  millions,  to  crush  the  world  of  individual  freedom 
with  the  weight  of  Asiatic  despotism,  than  all  these  reckless,  free, 
gay,  and  brave  young  Greeks  rushed  together  as  one  people,  and 
slew  the  common  enemy  in  the  most  momentous  conflicts  of  history. 

But  the  Persian  wars,  in  their  effects  of  increasing  the  wealth  of 
the  Grecian  cities,  particularly  of  Athens,  by  the  immense  contribu- 
tions exacted  from  other  places,  only  increased  the  evil  of  money- 
power  and  prerogative,  making  possible  the  success  of  so  reckless  a 
man  as  Alcibiades,  and  gave  rise  to  the  Avars  between  the  various 
parts  of  Greece,  whereby  all  of  them  finally  became  the  prey  of 
Philip  of  Macedon  and  his  son  Alexander,  who  gave  them  what  they 
had  never  had :  a  fixed  government  and  administration  of  law.  But 
it  was  too  late ;  and,  like  Judea,  Greece  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
most  powerful  of  all  State  organizations  of  the  Old  World,  the  Roman 
republic. 


C  H  A  P  T  E  E     IV. 

THE   KOMAN   REPUBLIC. 

If  the  Greek  republics  collapsed  chiefly  from  want  of  any  fixed 
State  organization,  and  from  the  growth  of  money  and  monopoly  pre- 
rogatives, the  fall  of  the  Roman  republic  shows  in  the  most  -vdAdd  and 
effective  way  how  the  strongest  organization  is  doomed  to  suffer  the 
s&me  fate  from  the  workings  of  the  latter  alone. 

Under  the  old  kings,  a  sort  of  theocratic-despotic  foi-m  of  govern- 
ment held  the  Roman  people  together  with  iron  severity.  Monogamic 
as  the  Hebrews  under  the  code  of  Moses,  it  was  the  violation  of  the 
sanctity  of  matrimony  which  roused  the  Roman  people,  under  the  elder 
Brutus,  to  expel  Tarquin,  their  last  king,  and  establish  a  republican 
form  of  government,  the  aristocratic  features  of  which  — in  that  a 
class  of  patricians  exercised  all  political  power  —  soon  gave  wa}'  to  the 
constant  pressure  exercised  on  it  by  the  populace ;  until,  after  many 
conflicts,  the  common  people  succeeded  in  securing  a  system  of  writ- 


HISTORICAL.  15 

ten  laws  to  protect  them  in  their  rights  and  property,  besides  effecting 
many  other  political  reforms  in  the  organization  of  the  State  for  their 
protection  against  the  encroachments  of  patrician  prerogative.  The 
existence  of  slavery  had  been  a  powerful  element  in  favor  of  the  patri- 
cians during  this  whole  period  of  struggle  for  equality  of  rights  on 
the  part  of  the  people. 

The  establishment  of  these  laws,  — the  twelve  tables,  — which  have 
been  the  foundation  of  all  succeeding  legislation,  and  the  adoption 
soon  after  of  the  Licinian  laws,  virtually  did  away  with  the  last  dis- 
tinctions between  patricians  and  plebeians,  and  inaugurated  the  hap- 
piest period  of  the  Roman  republic.  It  was  then  that,  by  an  unhappily 
growing  love  of  war  and  conquest,  which  extended  the  rule  of  the 
Roman  people  gradually  over  all  Italy,  Carthage,  Greece,  Macedon, 
Palestine,  Spain,  Gaul,  etc.,  there  arose  a  class  of  men  who,  by  the 
acquisition  of  wealth  and  military  power,  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
downfall  of  the  republic.  The  immense  number  of  provinces  sub- 
jected in  course  of  time  to  the  Romans  made  necessarj'  the  presence 
of  many  vast  armies,  under  ambitious  leaders,  by  the  very  nature  of 
their  profession  unfriendly  to  repubhcan  principles,  as  also  an  equally 
dangerous  body  of  tax-collectors,  proconsuls,  etc.,  who  amassed  fabu- 
lous sums  by  their  oppressions  and  extortions,  sending  to  Rome 
considerable  sums  of  money,  but  putting  the  main  part  of  the  plunder 
into  their  own  pockets. 

The  whole  State  organization  thus  began  to  fall  under  the  con- 
trol of  a  band  of  robbers,  the  most  colossal  in  power  that  has  ever 
held  sway,  and  which  maintained  its  power  as  the  Tweed  band  did  in 
New  York,  by  dividing  its  plunder  with  the  poor  classes.  Idleness 
and  luxury  followed  this  terrible  system  of  spoliation.  The  wealthy 
robbers,  the  high  officials  in  power,  introduced  every  species  of  ex- 
travagance that  could  be  found  under  the  wide  domain  of  the  empire  ; 
the  poor  gathered  around  the  market-places  in  idleness,  to  pick  up 
their  share  of  the  distriljution  of  these  "revenues."  In  vain  did 
Tiberius  Gracchus,  and  Cains,  his  brother,  oppose  themselves  to  the 
most  shameful  of  these  money-monopolies  ;  bribery  and  corruption 
had  become  so  general  that  Jugurtha  was  able  to  buy  up  even  the 
Roman  Senate.  Thirsting  now  for  continuous  war  as  a  permanent 
source  of  plunder,  the  Roman  people  soon  started  wars  among  them- 
selves, and  civil  discord  thus  became  for  their  ambitious  leaders  the 
same  step  to  advancement  which  foreign  conflicts  had  been.     The 


16  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

massacres  of  Marius  and  Sylla  in  Rome  made  offices  vacant  for  their 
respective  friends,  and  filled  their  hands  with  money  and  vast  posses- 
sions. The  slave  population,  which  had  been  constantly  increased  in 
number  under  this  demoralizing  state  of  things,  attempted,  under 
Spartacus,  in  vain  to  free  itself ;  Crassus,  one  of  the  foremost  of  the 
official  plunderers,  after  a  terrible  struggle,  terribly  suppressed  it; 
while  Pompey,  another  one,  won  his  celebrated  victorv  over  the 
pirates ;  the  ruling  principle  being  that  no  minor  thieves  should  be 
tolerated,  lest  the  greater  ones  of  Rome  might  not  get  all ;  until  the 
greatest,  but  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  extraordi- 
nary of  all  men  of  history,  Julius  Ctesar,  succeeded  in  placing  the 
control  of  the  whole  empire,  the  most  powerful  of  all  historical 
empires,  in  his  own  hands,  and  virtually  ended  the  Roman  republic. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE   FEUDAL    GOVERNMENTS. 

The  Roman  republic  having  crushed  all  other  historical  govern- 
ments, and  itself  having  been  crushed  by  the  rise  of  a  military  and 
money  despotism  vast  enough  to  overpower  even  so  powei-ful  a 
fabric,  the  civilized  people  of  Europe  had  all  sunk  into  a  condition  of 
slavery  under  the  Roman  empire,  from  which  they  were  aroused  only 
when  the  wild  hordes  of  Asia  overran  the  empire  and  threw  all 
Europe  into  a  state  of  political  and  legal  chaos.  For,  miserably  as 
the  Romans  had  contrived  the  political  organization  of  their  republic 
and  empire,  they  had  exhibited  a  genius  for  municipal  law  wMch  has 
ever  excited  the  admiration  of  the  legal  profession  in  all  countries. 
Strange  that  a  people  so  highly  advanced  in  the  science  of  jurispru- 
dence should  have  understood  so  little  of  the  science  of  political 
government !  But  with  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  barbarian  hordes, 
all  that  municipal  law,  so  admirably  collected  and  arranged  by  Jus- 
tinian, was  as  completely  swept  out  of  sight  as  the  Roman  empire 
itself,  and  it  was  not  till  the  twelfth  century  that  it  was  rediscovered, 
since  which  time  it  has  gradually  again  asserted  its  influence,  more 
or  less,  upon  the  jurisprudence  of  modern  Europe. 


HISTORICAL.  17 

But  ]nean;^'lnle  there  grew  up,  from  the  fifth  to  the  tenth  centuries^ 
in  varying  forms,  over  France,  Germany,  P^ngland,  Aragon,  and  part 
of  Italy,  the  Asiatic  system  of  feudal  rule  and  law,  which  still  partly 
holds  its  own  in  England,  though  it  has  been  recently  abolished  in 
Japan ;  a  system  that,  whatever  advantage  it  had  over  the  central- 
ized despotism  of  Rome,  by  disintegrating  the  one-man  power  of 
imperial  rule,  still  retained  the  most  essential  features  of  despotism, 
in  establishing  hereditarj^  prerogatives  of  a  favored  class,  or  aris- 
tocracies of  birth,  which  the  weakness  of  the  kings  under  that  system 
found  it  impossible  to  check.  Noted  warriors  were  endowed  with 
benefices,  or  fiefs,  or  large  tracts  of  land,  Avhich  they  endeavored, 
and  generally  successfully,  to  secure  permanently  to  their  families, 
while  governors  of  provinces  similarly  contrived  to  make  their  power 
hereditary.  Gradually  these  men  assumed  titles  according  to  their 
several  functions,  anel  thus  arose  the  numerous  classes  of  dukes, 
counts,  marquises,  margraves,  barons,  etc.,  which  figured  so  exten- 
sively in  the  Mitldle  Ages,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  that  aristocracy 
of  birth  whose  members,  sprung  from  the  lowest  hordes  of  savages, 
finally  claimed  to  be  God-chosen  superiors  of  the  more  honest  but 
poorer  people,  and  thereby  established  the  monarchical  tyi'annies  in 
the  various  countries  of  Europe. 

Compared  Avith  the  threatened  rule  of  absolute  despotism,  which 
Charlemagne's  great  successes  had  caused  to  be  feared,  the  original 
establishment  of  the  feudal  system  must  be  considered  to  have  been 
a  blessing  to  the  European  people,  "Equally  apart,"  says  the  great 
German  historian,  Friedrich  von  Raumer,  "from  the  miserable  servi- 
tude of  oriental  peoples,  and  from  the  cold  obedience  which  many 
superficial  minds  consider  only  a  necessary  e^al,  and  which  they 
reluctantly  pa^r  to  their  government,  we  see  in  it  a  pergonal  attach- 
ment and  reverence  of  the  vassal  for  his  lord  and  king,  strengthened 
by  the  power  derived  from  actual  possession."  Montesquieu  also, 
one  of  the  most  enlightened  writers  on  law,  pays  a  sjncere  tribute 
to  the  original  feudal  organization  when  he  says :  "I"  do  not  believe 
there  has  ever  been  established  on  the  earth  so  well-tempered  a 
government ;  and  it  is  to  be  admired  how  the  corruption  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  conquering  people  formed  the  best  sort  of  government 
which  men  were  able  to  imagine."  Von  Raumer,  again,  in  comparing 
the  thi-ee  forms  of  government,  uses  this  remarkable  image:  "An 
even  plain  and  a  solitary  pillar  erected  upon  it,  is  the  symbol  of  many 

2 


18  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

unrestricted  monarchies.  All  republics  may  be  likened  to  a  globe : 
each  part  of  the  animated  surface  seems  equally  important  and 
worthy,  and  from  seemingly  opposite  effects  and  counter-effects  there 
yet  arises  one  main  tendency  and  moA'ement.  The  symbol  of 
feudality  is  a  pyramid.  From  the  base  to  the  apex  all  parts  are 
unchangeably  united ;  down  below  the  greatest  number,  and  gradually 
decreasing,  the  king  on  the  top.  The  pillar  may  fall  down,  or  by 
military  tyranny  beat  down  the  people  ;  the  globe  may  perchance  roll 
beyond  its  assigned  path,  but  nothing  is  more  firmly  grounded  and  in 
more  safe  equilibrium  than  the  pyramid." 

The  history  of  the  feudal  age  has  itself  curiously  illustrated  the 
image.  Neither  part  of  the  pyramid  was  satisfied  with  its  position. 
The  top  was  powerless,  and  could  communicate  with  the  lower  part, 
the  people,  only  through  the  medium  of  the  central  part,  or  the 
nobles,  and  thus  strove  to  remove  that  centre  as  much  as  possible, 
succeeding  notably  in  France  through  the  effort  of  Cardinal  Riche- 
lieu and  Louis  XIV. ,  when  they  broke  the  power  of  the  nobles.  The 
central  part  thought  it  useless  to  support  the  upper  part,  of  which  it 
stood  in  no  need,  and  strove  to  remove  it  as  much  as  possible,  suc- 
ceeding in  England  by  malring  a  mere  figure-head  of  the  king,  and  in 
Germany  by  estabhshing  itself  into  numberless  small  principalities. 
The  lower  part,  the  most  numerous  of  all,  meanwhile  groaned  and 
suffered  aU  the  time,  until  finally,  in  the  earthquake  of  the  French 
Revolution,  it  lifted  up  and  overthrew  at  one  and  the  same  time  king 
and  nobles,  proclaiming  to  an  astonished  world  the  sovereignt}^  of 
the  base,  —  of  the  people. 

Thus  was  doomed  the  pyramid;  and  the  globe  only  remains  as 
indeed  the  only  stable  and  perfect  figure  for  all  government  of  man 
as  for  all  liature, — the  figure  in  which  the  suns  and  stars  move  in 
eternal  order  and  progi-ess  through  endless  space. 

It  was  the  inequality  which  the  various  parts  of  the  pyramid  bore 
to  each  other  that  proved  its  ruin ;  the  prerogative  of  the  higher,  the 
nobles,  and  of  the  highest,  the  king,  that  weighed  down  too  heavily 
upon  the  common  people  at  the  base. 

During  all  these  times  of  transition  from  feudal  forms  to  monarch- 
ical and  aristocratic  institutions,  onlj'  one  great  effort  was  made  to 
establish  a  code  of  law  for  any  people.  This  was  done  by  Frederick 
Hohenstauffen  II.,  emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  (died  1250), 
one  of  the  wisest  and  greatest  men  of  his  time,  whose  code  of  legis- 


HISTORICAL.  19 

lation,  foi'  boldness  and  originality  of  conception  as  well  as  for  its 
comprehensiveness,  has  its  counterpart  only  in  the  Institutes  of  Jus- 
tinian and  the  Code  of  Napoleon.  But,  far  ahead  of  his  age,  and  in 
constant  combat  with  both  the  hierarchical  despotism  that  then  had 
grown  up  in  Rome  and  extended  itself  over  all  Europe,  and  the 
money  despotism  that  had  just  risen  to  a  power  never  before  dis- 
played, permanent  results  could  not  follow  his  exertions,  and  with 
the  downfall  of  the  Hohenstauffen  dynasty,  arbitrary  rule  again 
usurped  the  place  of  law  and  justice  in  Europe. 

Every  sentiment  of  freedom  on  the  part  of  the  people  died  out; 
here  and  there  only  a  small  community  establishing  itself  under  a 
republican  form  of  government,  chiefly  in  cities  like  those  of  North- 
ern Italy,  and  later  the  free  cities  of  the  north ;  until  the  Cantons  of 
Switzerland  ofganized  the  first  attempt  of  modern  times  to  establish 
a  rational  federative  republic.  The  Netherlands  followed  in  the  same 
direction,  and  in  England  also  attempts  have  continually  been  made 
to  establish  its-  political  State  organization  upon  republican  principles 
of  oovernment. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   FRENCH   REPUBLIC. 

The  first  of  the  great  nations  of  Europe  that  emerged  from  the  dust 
and  ruins  of  the  feudal  fabric  was  France.  The  most  awful  convul- 
sion of  history  overthrew  for  a  time  every  prerogative  that  had  been 
established,  —  priestly,  lordly,  and  kingly,  —  and  reasserted  the  right 
of  every  citizen  of  the  State  to  equality  under  the  law.  But  in  the 
violence  of  the  revolution  the  movement  overleaped  itself,  and  by 
establishing  the  prerogative  of  Paris  as  the  centralized  ruler  of 
France,  created  another  despotism,  whereby  the  promise  of  the 
beginning  was  killed  off  ere  it  was  able  to  do  more  than  fill  Europe 
with  a  new  feeling  of  freedom  and  exuberance,  the  like  of  which  is 
not  to  be  met  with  in  all  history,  and  which  burns  still,  though  under 
the  ashes  that  were  heaped  upon  it  to  suppress  it. 

The  other  despotism  was  that'  of  the  first  Napoleonic  empire,  which, 
with  all  its  miUtary  glory,  its  reorganization  of  society,  its  estabhsh- 


20  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

ment  of  internal  improvements  and  development  of  the  commercial, 
industrial,  and  agricultural  interests  of  the  nation,  and  even  with  its 
universal  franchise,  was  nevertheless  essentially  a  despotism. 

Its  greatest  achievement  in  the  way  of  social  and  political  progress 
was  the  promulgation  of  the  Code  Napoleon,  which,  taken  all  in  all, 
is  the  most  perfect  and  comprehensive  system  of  law  provided  by  the 
mind  of  man,  until  the  appearance  of  the  six  New  York  codes  and 
the  codes  of  CaUfornia.  There  is  no  occasion  in  this  work  to  trace 
the  history  of  France  thi'oughout  the  vicissitudes  that  followed  the 
downfall  of  the  first  empire,  until  its  reestablishment  in  the  second 
empire,  the  overthrow  of  which,  and  succession  by  a  new  republic,  are 
matters  of  contemporaneous  history.  Still,  this  may  be  said  here,  in 
proper  connection  with  the  general  tendency  of  this  work :  that  at  no 
time  of  her  history  has  France  made  such  rapid  stridjps  of  advance- 
ment in  every  department  of  human  progress  as  during  the  present 
republican  rule.  All  the  gilded  prosperity  of  the  second  empire,  that 
faded  away  at  one  blow  with  the  Sedan  surrender,  is  as  nothing  when 
compared  with  the  real  prosperity  of  the  France  of  to-day,  dismem- 
bered as  she  is  by  the  loss  of  two  of  her  finest  pro^dnces,  and  still 
suffering  from  the  life  loss  of  thousands  of  her  brave  citizens  and 
the  money  loss  of  twelve  milUards  of  francs.  Nor  is  it  out  of  the  way 
here  to  express  my  con\dction  that  the  present  French  repubhc,  if  it 
estabhshes  my  money  system  and  keeps  down  monopolies,  will  be  a 
permanent  factor  in  politics,  and  that  iiround  it  will  centre  all  the 
achievements  of  republican  freedom  in  Europe. 

There  is  at  the  present  time,  and  will  probably  be  for  many  years 
to  come,  more  wealth,  prosperity,  individual  industry,  frugality, 
and  virtue  in  much-slandered  France  than  in  any  other  country  of 
Europe. 


CHAPTER    Vn. 

THE   SWISS   REPUBLIC. 


Of  all  countries  in  Europe,  it  is  only  in  Switzerland  that  the 
attempt  to  estabhsh  a  rational  form  of  federative  government  has 
been  thus  far  crowned  with  success ;  although  the  introduction  of 


HISTORICAL.  21 

the  referendum  —  whereby  the  laws,  after  their  enactment  by  the 
legislative  council  of  tlie  Swiss  Confederation,  are  submitted  to  the 
approval  of  the  people  —  has,  of  late,  greatly  shaken  the  confidence 
of  statesmen  in  the  perpetuity  of  its  institutions.  Besides,  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Confederation  is  defective  in  not  providing  a  suffi- 
cient bond  of  union  between  the  Cantons ;  and  they  are  mainly 
dei)endent  upon  foreign  countries  and  bankers  for  their  mone- 
tary means  of  intercommunication  and  commercial  and  business 
exchanges. 

A  most  oppressive  aristocracy  of  landed  proprietors  has  also 
become  established,  which  may  eventually  destroy  the  liberties  of 
the  people,  by  absorbing  nearly  all  the  political  powers  and  official 
positions  in  the  different  Cantons.  This  predominance  of  a  landed 
aristocracy,  the  keystone  of  the  feudal  system,  gives  great  solidity 
to  the  Swiss  Confederation ;  but  the  result  is  the  same  there  as 
■elsewhere :  to  impoverish  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  eventually 
force  them  into  the  same  helpless  labor  slavery  that  prevails  in 
England,  China,  Russia,  and  other  countries  where  the  same  sort  of 
aristocracy  prevails. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  the  Swiss  form  of  government,  how- 
ever, is  the  referendum  system,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded. 
The  question  which  it  involves  is,  in  short,  this :  Is  it  wise  that  the 
legislative  body  should  have  absolute  power  to  pass  laws,  or  should 
each  law  be  submitted  to  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  after  having 
TDeen  passed  by  the  legislature  ? 

The  arguments  in  favor  of  the  system  are  chiefly  these :  The  people 
are  compelled  to  become  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  their  country ; 
no  private  law  can  be  smuggled  through  a  legislative  body  and  be- 
come effective,  unless  the  people  at  large  agree  to  its  justice  ;  and  in 
this  respect  it  is  the  only  real  democratic  form  of  government. 

The  main  arguments  against  it  are,  that  it  is  lialile  to  abuse,  and 
gives  rise  to  a  class  of  pure  demagogues ;  that  it  is  excessively  cum- 
bersome and  expensive ;  and,  finally,  that  it  places  ignorance  on  an 
improper  footing  of  equality  with  education  and  intellect. 

As  yet  the  system  must  be  considered  merely  an  exi^eriment ;  nor 
will  its  success  show  that  it  could  be  made  applicable  to  so  extensive* 
a  country  as  our  own. 


22  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

CHAPTER    VIIT. 

THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE. 

Though  in  the  more  northern  monarchies  of  Europe  —  Denmark, 
Norway  and  Sweden -^  there  is  more  real  republican  freedom  than 
in  Great  Britain,  still  the  British  Empire  lays  claim  to  having  the  most 
purely  popular  form  of  government  in  all  Europe.  Now,  it  is  very 
true  that  in  Great  Britain  the  representation  of  property,  the  integrity 
of  the  judiciary,  and  the  universality  of  the  laws  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  commerce  and  manufactures  have  certainly  thus  far  pro- 
duced commercial,  trading,  and  manufacturing  prosperity,  but  only 
at  the  fearful  cost  of  enslaving  labor  and  impoverishing  the  masses. 
Still,  the  landed  aristocracy  of  Great  Britain,  created  by  the  feudal 
system  and  holding  the  principal  landed  estates  in  the  kingdom,  has 
not  been  able  to  absorb  the  common  liberties  of  the  British  subject 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  destroy  them  altogether,  because  the  new 
sources  of  profitable  emplo3anent  opened  up  to  the  industrious  middle 
classes  in  new  colonies,  the  new  powers  applied  to  mechanics,  and 
the  new  fields  of  wealth  in  gold,  silver,  commerce,  banking,  and 
exchanges,  have  raised  many  members  of  the  poorer  and  middle 
classes  to  almost  an  equality  in  wealth  with  the  richest  peers  of  the 
realm. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  the  Established  Church  has  encountered 
too  many  opposing  sects  to  become  a  very  dangerous  hierarchical  ele- 
ment, save  so  far  as  it  is  united  with  the  State,  the  royal  charters,  the 
money  despotisms,  the  other  powerful  companies  and  monopolies 
existing  in  the  British  Empire,  have  always  been  held  in  check  more 
or  less  by  the  hereditary  aristocracy  of  the  House  of  Lords,  which 
overshadows  and  balances  all  other  prerogatives.  But  the  multitu- 
dinous complications  of  the  British  administration  of  public  affairs, 
with  its  false  systems  of  law,  of  government,  of  religious  establish- 
ments, of  education,  and  of  the  management  of  the  colonies,  cannot 
continue  for  any  considerable  period  of  time  longer,  and  a  revolution 
^s  now  threatening  which  will  in  all  probabilit}^  result  in  the  peaceable 
establishment  of  a  republican  federative  government  over  the  empire 
and  all  its  colonies.  This  would  at  once  place  the  new  republic  of 
Great  Britain  in  the  front  rank  with  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the 


HISTORICAL. 


23 


world,  and  relieve  her  people  from  the  intolerable  burdens  of  the 
feudal  system,  and  all  the  aristocracies  and  monopolies  that  have  fol- 
lowed in  its  train. 

It  has  been  well  baid  that  a  revolution  in  Great  Britain  would  not 
be  a  French  revolution,  accompanied  by  scenes  of  bloodshed,  devas- 
tation, and  carnage,  but  one  moving  in  a  quiet  way  for  the  creation  of 
constitutional  safeguards  and  just  representative  systems,  to  secure 
political  equality  under  wise  and  hann'onious  codes,  to  be  estab- 
lished by  the  people  in  solemn  conventions. 

It  will  be  the  best  for  all  the  subjects  of  that  country  to  unite  in 
this  grand  movement  for  the  common  good ;  for  if  the  aristocracies 
of  monopolies  or  of  birth  force  on  a  conflict  between  the  people  and 
themselves,  the  issue  cannot  be  doubtful,  and  the  losses  will  fall 
necessarily  upon  the  parties  now  in  possession  of  all  that  is  valuable 
in  the  kingdom,  and  their  utter  ruin  will  be  inevitable.  For  men  are 
but  men  everywhere,  with  similar  gifts,  endowments,  and  passions. 
The  hungry  English  lal)orer  and  the  hungry  French  laborer  have  the 
same  cravings  for  bread,  for  freedom,  for  equal  poHtical  rights,  and 
will  not  hesitate  to  use  the  same  means  to  satisfy  that  craving.  In 
truth,  history  would  rather  teach  us  that  the  Englishman  is  quicker 
to  assert  his  rights,  and  more  determined  in  removing  every  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  their  assertion,  than  the  Frenchman.  The  Magna 
Charta  was  extorted  from  King  John  by  the  Enghsh  barons  while  the 
kings  of  France  were  preparing  for  the  subjection  of  their  nobles, 
which  Louis  XIII.  and  Louis  XIV.  consummated.  King  Charles  I. 
was  beheaded  long  before  the  French  followed  the  English  example. 
But  while  the  descendants  of  the  Norman  conquerors,  who  appro- 
priated nearly  all  the  best  lands  of  England,  are  still  in  possession  of 
their  vast  estates,  in  France  the  lands  of  the  nobles  were  divided 
among  the  people  in  the  great  revolution  of  1789  ;  and  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  people  of  England,  if  forced  into  a  revolutionary 
conflict  with  the  ruling  aristocracies,  will  naturally  employ  the  same 
revolutionary  measures  to  have  those  vast  estates  divided  among  the 
descendants  of  the  former  owners,  v^^hich  the  French  people  found 
themselves  compelled  to  employ. 

No  society  can  long  keep  its  equilibrium  that  has  at  the  one  end 
such  colossal  wealth  as,  for  instance,  that  of  the  IMarquis  of  West- 
minster, with  his  annual  income  of  more  than  $2,000,000,  and  at  the 
other  end  full  a  million  of  penal  paupers,  several  millions  more  of  aU 


24  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

kinrls  of  laborers  just  on  the  verge  of  pauperism,  and  all  of  them 
suffei-ing-  from  impurit}^  and  ignorance  ;  that  hoards  in  the  very  centre 
of  its  civilization  thousands  upon  thousands  of  men  ahnost  as  fierce  and 
lawless  as  the  Goths  and  Huns  that  overran  Europe  under  Attila,  or 
the  Tartars  of  Tamerlane,  or  the  wretches  of  Faubourg  St.  Antoine, 
while  it  laA-ishes  the  money  that  should  be  spent  at  home,  upon  their 
physical  and  intellectual  improvement,  in  Afghan,  Crimean,  Abj^ssin- 
ian,  and  Zulu  wars,  in  enormous  salaries  of  useless  kings  and  queens, 
and  extravagant  subsidies  and  dowers  expended  with  the  same  pro- 
fusion on  all  their  children  and  relatives ;  that,  forced  on  the  one 
hand  to  make  franchise  more  and  more  universal  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  still  retains,  on  the  other  hand,  the  only  hereditary  cham- 
ber in  Europe,  the  House  of  Peers,  a  titled  plutocracy,  holding  its 
vast  entailed  estates  free  of  all  military  or  civil  duties,  enjoying  all 
the  benefits  of  the  feudal  system  without  performing  any  of  its 
duties,  and  whose  onty  purpose  of  existence  seems  to  be  to  veto 
every  reform  proposed  by  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

But  the  worst  stain  on  the  escutcheon  of  Great  Britain,  and  its 
o-reatest  danger,  lies  in  its  treatment  of  Ireland,  a  vital  part  of  its 
own  immediate  bodily  organization.  There  has  been  for  two  and  a 
half  centuries,  and  there  is  now  in  Ireland  an  amount  of  suffering, 
changing  into  downright  disloyalty  to  the  British  government,  fuUy 
equal  to  the  suffering  and  consequent  disloyalty  which  put  Louis 
XVI.  on  the  guillotine.  This  suffering  and  discontent  in  Ireland  is 
produced  by  substantially  the  same  causes  which  heralded  the  French 
revolution,  namely,  the  holding  of  lands  in  large  bodies  by  a  few 
individuals ;  but  in  Ireland  the  evil  is  aggravated  by  the  fact,  that 
even  those  few  laud-owners  are  non-residents,  and  spend  the  money 
derived  from  their  leaseholds  in  all  other  countries  except  Ireland, 
whereas  in  Scotland  and  England  most  of  those  land-owners  are  resi- 
dents, and  spend  their  money  at  home.  In  Ireland,  the  ownership  of 
the  lands  was  originalh^  in  the  people,  and  was  alienated  from  them 
and  vested  in  a  few  persons,  b}'  a  most  outrageous  system  of  confis- 
cation on  the  part  of  England,  after  the  battle  of  the  Boyne.  In 
other  words,  the  feudal  sj'stem  of  land  tenure,  mth  its  laws  of  entail 
and  primogeniture,  v: as  forced  upon  Ireland  long  after  it  had  become 
a  settled  affair  in  England  by  the  conquest,  and  the  Irish  have  never 
been  disposed  to  submit  to  it.     Besides,  the  development  of  industry 


HISTORICAL.  25 

in  England  nnd  Scotland,  which  in  those  countries  has  to  a  degree 
softened  the  tyranny  of  the  feudal  system,  has  never  been  extended 
to  Ireland,  and  hence  that  tyranny  has  been  there  doubly  felt. 

Just  let  an}^  American  consider  these  facts :  that  there  are  in  Ireland 
about  twenty  million  acres  of  land,  of  which  six  and  a  half  millions 
are  owned  by  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  persons,  nine  million  six 
Inuulred  and  twelve  thousand  acres  by  seven  hundred  and  fort3^-four 
persons,  and  one  milUon  three  hundred  and  ten  thousand  acres  by 
twelve  persons.  That  is  to  say,  ten  hundred  and  forty-eight  persons 
own  seventeen  million  four  hundred  and  twenty-two  acres  out  of  the 
twenty  million  acres  of  land  which  constitute  Ireland ;  and  of  these 
ten  hundred  and  forty-eight  persons,  nearly  all  are  non-residents. 

For  this  unnataral  state  of  affairs  there  is  only  one  remedy,  a 
remedy  to  be  applied  to  p]ngland  and  Scotland  as  well  as  to  Ireland, 
and  that  is  to  abolish  the  laws  of  primogeniture  and  of  entails.  By 
such  a  measure  the  numl)er  of  landlords  will  be  largely  increased  at 
each  descent  cast,  until  at  length  the  lands  will  become  the  property 
of  those  who  cultivate  them.  In  this  way  would  gradually  be  re- 
moved the  domination  of  the  British  plutocracy,  and  the  people  be 
restored  to  power  and  the  control  of  their  own  government.  The 
immediate  and  natural  remedy  for  Irishmen  suffering  those  e%'ils  is 
to  emigrate  to  North  or  South  America,  Austraha,  or  to  islands  in 
thp  East  or  West  Indies. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    GERMAN   EMPIRE. 


With  the  downfall  of  the  feudal  inverted  pyramid,  there  was  for 
some  time  also  hope  that  Germany  would  emerge  from  the  rule  of 
despotisms  and  rise  to  political  freedom  in  the  same  degree  as  it  had 
always  successfull}^  vindicated  for  itself  intellectual  lilierty.  The 
revolutionary  movement  of  1848  began  brightly  enough,  and,  indeed, 
was  at  one  time  on  the  eve  of  success ;  but  that  same  deplorable 
lack  of  unity  and  that  same  local  State  pride  which  put  so  manj'' 
hindrances  in  the  way  of  establishing  our  own  Union,  defeated  the 


26  LIBERTY"    AND    LAW. 

German  when  in  its  fullest  glory.  Since  then  the  political  history 
of  Germany  has  been  one  of  continual  retrogression ;  so  that  now, 
through  the  natural  results  of  the  conflict  between  France  and  Ger- 
many, and  the  maintenance  of  a  large  standing  army,  it  is  enslaved, 
even  worse  than  it  has  been  for  centuries,  under  imperial  rule.  The 
extinction  of  all  local  self-government  under  the  supreme  law  of  the 
Imperial  code,  and  the  terrible  conscription  system  of  the  landwehr 
organization,  multiplying  taxes  and  servitudes,  drives  the  despairing 
people  by  hundreds  of  thousands  annually  to  seek  refuge  from 
tyranny  by  abandoning  their  native  land. 

It  is  one  of  the  sarcasms  of  the  spirit  of  history,  that  the  victory 
of  the  Germans  in  the  Franco-German  war  should  have  resulted  in 
Germanizing  France,  as  it  were,  and  in  Frenchifying  Germany. 
With  the  close  of  that  war  France  became  one  of  the  most  indus- 
trious, frugal,  economic,  non-speculative  nations  of  the  continent; 
while  Germany  grew  wild  over  speculative  schemes  of  the  most  des- 
perate character,  grew  extravagant,  spendthrift,  socialistic,  and, 
above  all,  anti-American.  France  kept  up  her  traditionary  love  for 
the  United  States ;  the  second  Gei-man  Empire  has  treated  us  with 
contempt  ever  since  its  first  erection,  and  impotently  struggles  to 
prevent  her  people  from  emigrating  to  our  country  to  escape  military, 
social,  and  aristocratic  despotism. 

France  turned  devout,  and  went  on  extraordinary  pilgrimages; 
Germany  dropped  into  skepticism  of  the  worst  kind,  and  published 
books  in  glorification  of  Strauss  and  others  of  the  same  ilk.  The 
French  Republic  tried  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  both  the  Catholic 
and  the  Protestant  Churches;  the  German  Empire  scowled  on  all 
Churches.  Strange  to  say,  however,  within  the  very  latest  times, 
under  its  republican  form  of  government,  — the  best  and' freest  that 
country  has  ever  enjoyed,  —  France,  while  remaining  devout,  has 
boldly  faced  the  danger  of  priestcraft  interference  with  government 
affairs  and  predominance  in  the  State,  therein  following  the  exam- 
ple of  Italy  under  the  inspiration  of  Garibaldi;  and  Germany, 
while  remaining  indifferent  to  religion,  has  made  efforts  to  renew  the 
broken-off  connection  between  Church  and  State.  That  this  second 
German  Empire  will  remain  for  a  time  a  fixed  factor  of  European 
poUtics  admits  of  scarcely  a  doubt,  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  the 
whole  form  of  its  government  will  have  to  undergo  a  change.     No 


HISTORICAL.  27 

government  that  keeps  a  whole  nation  continually  under  arms,  and 
expends  yearly  over  one-third  of  its  revenues  for  purely  military  pur- 
poses and  warlike  preparations,  can  maintain  itself.  The  people  will 
become  exhausted  b}'  such  hard  riding,  and  will  throw  their  riders. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE   KUSSIAN  EMPIRE. 

While  the  German  Empire  pretends  to  be,  and  in  some  measure 
is  a  compromise  between  a  popular  and  a  despotic  form  of  gov- 
ernment,—  leaning  more  towards  the  latter,  however, — the  Russian 
Empire  presents  the  curious  contrast  of  an  unequivocally  declared 
despotic  form  of  government,  and  an  equally  unmistakenly  out- 
spoken opposition  to  all  other  forms  of  government  in  its  social 
organization.  That  part  of  the  Russian  population  which  still  sub- 
mits blindly  to  the  dictation  of  the  emperor,  calls  him  "Father;" 
the  other  part  uses  all  sorts  of  means  to  send  him,  by  dynamite  or 
shot  or  shell,  into  another  world,  and  are  very  properly  termed  Nihil- 
ists. In  a  subsequent  chapter,  on  "Capital  and  Labor,"  I  shall  more 
at  length  discuss  this  anomaly ;  here  it  is  suftlcient  to  simply  point  it 
out. 

The  Russian  Empire  is  the  great  bugaboo  of  European  civilization  ; 
it  is  at  once  the  firmest  colossus  erected  since  the  days  of  the  Roman 
Emph-e,  and  yet  the  weakest,  for  the  slightest  shake  may  occasion 
its  overthrow.  It  threatens  not  only  Western  Europe  to  the  borders 
of  the  Rhine,  but  equally  China  to  the  coasts  of  the  Pacific. 

With  an  area  of  8,270,759  square  miles,  Russia  has  a  population 
of  some  90,000,000  souls.  From  these  90,000,000,  representing  an 
average  of  13,000,000  of  male  adults,  Russia  takes  an  army  of 
800,000  men ;  withdrawing  thus  these  800,000  from  the  revenue-pro- 
ducing population  of  the  13,000,000,  and  making  them,  moreover,  a 
permanent  burden  on  the  remaining  12,200,000  men.  This  is  the 
general  effect  of  the  miUtary  system  of  Europe. 

Russia  withdraws  800,000  of  her  best  men  from  agricultural,  in- 


28  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

dnstrial,  and  commercial  pursuits ;  Germany  withdraws  in  the  same 
manner  some  500,000  men,  France  nearly  the  same  number,  Italy 
some  690,000.  In  short,  the  armies  maintained  by  all  the  govern- 
ments in  Europe,  on  a  peace  footing,  —  ostensibly  to  defend  each 
nation  against  some  supposed  aggressive  neiglibor,  but  in  fact  to 
keep  their  subjects  in  slavery  by  military  power,  —  number  nearly 
four  million  men,  as  follows,  using  round  numbers :  —  * 

Russia 800,000  men. 

Turkey 200,000  " 

Germany  (exclusive  of  all  reserves,  to  about  the  same  number)  .  500,000  " 

France  (exclusive  of  all  reserves,  to  about  the  same  number)    .  500,000  '• 

Italy .•    .     .     .  690,000  " 

Austria-Hungary 350,000  " 

Denmark 40,000  " 

Great  Britain  (exclusive  of  some  240,000  militia  and  volunteers)  1 50,000  '* 

Greece 30,000  " 

The  Netherlands 65,000  " 

Portugal 35,000  " 

Spain 100,000  " 

Sweden  and  Norway 170,000  " 

Switzerland   (exclusive   of   the  landwehr,  which   count   some 

92,000)      120,000  " 

Making  a  total  of    ...  3,750,000  men. 

And  these  are  the  most  able-bodied  men  to  be  found  in  their  respec- 
tive countries,  and  are  taken  away  from  their  proper  pursuits  in  life 
and  thrown  as  a  burden  upon  the  tax-paying  citizens, — na}',  not 
only  a  burden,  but  a  constant  threat  and  danger,  for  these  armed  sol- 
diers lose  all  sense  of  a  common  fellowship  with  their  fellow-citizens, 
and  are  ready  at  any  moment  to  shoot  them  down  like  dogs.  The 
financial  burden  which  this  S3'stem  of  standing  armies  imposes  upon 
the  people  I  shall  discuss  more  at  length  in  a  subsequent  article,  on 
"  Capital  and  Labor." 

In  many  respects  the  United  States  and  Russia  present  points  of 
resemblance.  We  also  have  an  absolute  despot,  but  .that  despot  is 
the  law-making  power.  We  have  also  individualistic  tendencies  of 
every  description,  but  —  excepting  the  late  upgrowth  of  corporations 
threatening  our  liberties  —  our  people  still  practically  have  liberty 
under  the  law.  But  in  one  essential  respect  we  are  (and  let  us  hope 
that  we  ever  may  remain  so)  utterly  dissimilar  to  Russia,  and  this  is, 


IIISTOKICAL.  29 

that  we  do  not  maintain  a  standing  arniy  of  soldiers, — although  our 
potiticians  compose  an  army  more  expensive  than  our  few  thousand 
enlisted  men,  who  constitute  merely  a  nominal  army,  and  even  as 
such  are  always  subordinate  to  the  civil  power. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE    IRREPRESSIBLE    CONFLICT    IX   EUROPE. 

From  all  the  foregoing,  it  must  appear  clearly  to  every  attentive 
reader  that  the  continent  of  Europe  is  apparently  on  the  eve  of  a 
world -historical  conflict.  It  is  hardly  possible  that  the  various 
nations  named  above  can  keep  up  their  present  armies ;  and  not  only 
that,  but  also  endeavor  to  outrival  each  other  in  the  building  of  shot- 
proof  navies,  and  the  construction  of  fortifications,  large  and  small 
arms,  munitions  of  war  and  equipments,  at  an  immense  and  mostly 
useless  expenditure,  without  provoking  war  and  bloodshed,  and 
entering  upon  the  conflict  for  which  they  are  so  well  prepared. 

And  what  is  all  this  contest  about?  It  sounds  ridiculous,  but  in 
truth  the  prime  cause  of  this  general  military  staUis  of  Europe  lies 
in  Turkey,  at  present  a  comparatively  insignificant  part  of  the 
European  continent,  with  a  population  in  Europe  of  only  nineteen 
millions,  but  with  a  magnificent  debt  to  capitalists  in  Europe  of 
some  $800,000,000,  to  pay  which  she  exhibits  an  annual  deficit  of 
^45,000,000. 

This  explains  clearer  than  anything  else  the  extraordinary  interest 
the  British  Empire  takes  in  the  maintenance  of  Turkish  rule  in 
Europe ;  for  no  man  of  sense  will,  in  these  days  of  railroad  com- 
munication, pretend  to  reecho  Napoleon's  saying,  that  Constantinople 
is  the  key  to  the  world.  The  Suez  Canal  of  itself,  not  to  speak 
of  other  systems  of  communication,  broke  down  that  Napoleonic 
view  of  the  value  of  the  golden  liorn  of  the  Bosphorus. 

What  Great  Britain  wants  is  the  $800,000,000  advanced  to  Turkey 
by  the  confiding  British  capitalists,  through  the  agency  of  the  Roth- 
schilds and  others.  Now  these  $800,000,000,  Turkey,  with  its  annual 
deficit,  is  of  course  unable  to  pay.     Russia?     Well,  Russia  has  not 


30  LIBERTY  AND   LAW. 

good  credit  in  tlie  money  market  either;  and  it  is,  moreover,  on 
purely  strategical  grounds,  inadvisable  to  allow  her  free  and  full 
possession  of  what  remains  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  since  such  posses- 
sion would  be  a  constant  danger  to  all  of  Western  Europe,  and 
seriously  threaten  the  British  possessions  in  India,  as  well  as  the 
Chinese  Empire. 

Hence  there  is  only  one  great  power  left  in  Europe  which  can 
accomplish  the  combined  purpose  of  properly  swallowing  Turkey  in 
Europe  and  paying  a  part  of  Turkey's  debt  to  the  capitalists  of 
Great  Britain,  and  this  power  is  the  double-headed  monarchy  of 
Austria-Hungary,  at  present  under  the  protection  of  the  new  German 
Empire.  Now,  as  Eussia  wants  Turkey  badly,  and  as  Austria-Hun- 
gary has  been  made  to  realize,  ever  since  the  days  of  Sadowa,  that 
she  must  ultimately  give  up  the  German  part  of  her  dominions  to  the 
German  Empire,  and  look  for  territorial  compensation  in  an  east- 
wardly  direction,  —  that  is,  towards  that  same  Turkey  which  Russia 
has  been  watching,  with  prey-lusty  eye,  ever  since  the  days  of  Peter 
the  Great,  —  it  is  very  clear  that,  sooner  or  later,  the  final  struggle 
for  the  possession  of  Turkey  in  Europe  will  result  in  a  conflict  be- 
tween Austria-Hungary  and  Russia,  in  which  the  German  Empire 
will,  of  necessity,  side  with  the  former  power,  and  take  its  German 
territory  in  payment  for  its  services ;  and  the  British  Empire  will  lend 
its  aid  also  to  the  same  power,  on  condition  that  the  new  possessor 
of  Turkey  in  Europe  assume  also  a  proportionate  share  of  the  Turk- 
ish indebtedness.  The  Russian  power  in  Europe  will  be  broken  and 
crippled  in  this  contest. 

Into  this  mighty  struggle,  which  is  daily  drawing  nearer,  nearly  all 
of  those  four  million  of  European  soldiers  will  in  all  probability  be 
drawn,  and  every  nation  engaged  in  it  will  be  required  to  tax  its 
financial  strength  to  the  utmost.  The  human  mind  shudders  in  con- 
templation of  the  infinite  misery  and  suffering  which  this  conflict  is 
doomed  to  bring  over  a  whole  continent ;  and  the  only  gleam  of  light 
shining  through  the  darkness  is  the  possibility  that  the  shock  may  be 
so  terrible,  both  in  its  military  and  financial  aspects,  as  to  compel, 
early  in  the  struggle,  a  general  disarmament,  and  thus  force  the  era 
of  war  to  come  to  an  end  by  its  own  hand,  as  it  were.  It  would  be 
a  new  illustration  of  the  dialectic  movement  which  pervades  all  finite 
things  and  phenomena.  Allow  anything  to  run  to  its  extreme  limit, 
and  it  will  turn  into  its  very  opposite.     When  life  has  reached  its 


HISTORICAL.  31 

highest  development,  it  begins  to  change  into  death ;  and  from  death 
springs  up  new  Ufe.  And  thus  a  time  must  come  when  war  will  have 
attained  such  fearful  and  destructive  power  that  it  must  give  way  to 
a  blessed  era  of  peace,  and  the  settlement  of  national  controversies 
by  an  international  court. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE   UNITED    STATES. 


In  the  political  organization  of  our  own  country,  the  most  promi- 
nent and  singular  feature  that  presents  itself  is  tlie  fact,  that  our 
political  constitution,  our  form  of  government,  was  an  absolute  crea- 
tion of  reason.  It  was  not  pieced  together  out  of  an  hereditary, 
accumulated  set  of  laws  or  rules  of  political  administration;  it  is 
not  the  lawless  growth  of  ages,  but  a  rationally  considered  and  de- 
termined form  of  government,  made  to  fit  a  certain  contingency. 
The  code  of  Moses  is,  in  this  respect,  the  only  one  that  has  a  similar 
origin.  The  legislation  of  the  Hebrews  did  not  arise  gradualh'  out 
of  circumstances,  like  that  of  other  nations,  but  was  fixed  complete 
at  once,  to  suit  the  miserable,  degraded  condition  into  which  they  had 
fallen  as  slaves  in  Egypt.  The  government  established  in  Paraguay  by 
the  Jesuits,  and  maintained  from  about  1700  to  1775,  when  it  was 
shamefully  broken  up  by  Spain  and  Portugal,  —  upon  the  abrogation  of 
the  order  by  Clement  XIV.,  —  may,  however,  also  be  classified  with 
these  a  priori  constructed  forms  of  government ;  and  in  some  meas- 
ure, also,  the  Inca  government  of  ancient  Peru.  Both  of  these  political 
structures  will  be  treated  more  at  length  in  another  chapter,  in  the 
Second  Part  of  this  book. 

Philosophers  of  great  repute  have  denied  the  possibility  of  such 
an  origin  for  a  political  constitution.  Looking  merely  at  the  utterly 
irrational  organization  of  the  European  monarchies,  —  the  whole 
structure  of  which  has  reference  only  to  the  supreme  welfare  and 
monopoly  of  the  ruling  family,  —  and  accepting  these  sad  memorials 
of  human  cowardice  and  ignorance  as  glorious  monuments  of  human 
power  and  wisdom,  they  have  denied  the  possibility  of  any  other 
origin  of  political  organization,  and  laughed  to  scorn  the  attempt  of 


32  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  French  revolutionists  to  erect  a  poUtical  fabric  on  principles  of 
reason. 

And  yot  here  stands  history,  with  the  purely  rationally  conceived 
government  of  Moses,  of  singular  power  and  duration,  if  its  small 
territorial  dimensions  are  taken  into  consideration,  and  the  United 
States,  with  nearly  a  centur}^  of  history,  more  marvellous  in  its  splen- 
dor and  progress,  despite  all  drawbacks,  than  the  history  of  any  other 
political  organization  in  the  world.  Nor  does  history  furnish  an 
instance  of  a  form  of  government  under  which  the  governed  lived 
more  contentedly  than  under  the  government  of  primitive  Peru,  or 
that  of  the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay. 

It  is  to  be  held  one  of  the  greatest  blessings,  that  the  founders  of 
our  republic  were  thus  enabled,  under  the  peculiar  exigencies  of  the 
case,  to  erect  a  ne\'^  government  of  a  federative  republic  altogether 
on  principles  of  reason  ;  and  the  only  thing  to  be  regretted  is,  that 
they  did  not  carry  out  this  principle  in  full,  by  making  rational  organ- 
izations for  the  several  separate  States,  b}''  abolishing  all  laws  for  the 
perpetuation  of  slavery,  b}^  fixing  the  laws  of  money  and  commerce 
independently  of  traditional  notions,  and  by  establishing  a  complete 
code  of  laws,  — even  as  Napoleon  established  his  code  for  France,  — 
without  the  phantom  of  an  unknown  common  law,  which  it  is  absurd 
to  presume  that  the  people  should  be  able  to  follow,  since  the  most 
distinguished  judges  of  the  different  courts.  State  and  Federal,  have 
been  and  still  are  continually  announcing  contradictory  decisions 
upon  the  same  questions  of  law  and  equit}^  which  are  commonly 
known  in  law  as  vexed  questions. 

So  far,  therefore,  as  those  great  men  followed  purely  the  dictates 
of  reason,  their  labors  have  been  successful  bcN'ond  precedent.  So 
far  as  they  followed  the  vagaries  of  tradition,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  left  the  door  open  to  the  growth  of  moneyed  monopolies  and 
other  forms  of  despotism,  that  are  showing  their  corrupting  influence 
more  and  more  every  day,  as  well  in  class  legislation  as  in  the  growth 
of  ignorance  and  physical  disease,  and  to  root  out  which  this  book 
has  been  written.  It  is  easj''  to  see  how  it  chanced  that  they  thus 
neglected  to  carry  out  the  supreme  rule  of  their  political  conduct  in 
the  details  of  law  administration.  Our  form  of  government  being  a 
double  one,  the  more  extensive  Federal  form  naturally  attracted  their 
chief  attention,  and  the  separate  State  organizations,  with  their  exclu- 
sive management  of  "domestic  affairs,"  engaged  but  to  a  local  and 


HISTORICAL.  33 

limited  extent  the  consideration  of  statesmen ;  and  the  anomaly  of 
uniting  these  States  under  a  purel}'  rational  form  of  government,  while 
allowing  them  to  retain  most  of  their  historical  and  traditional  legis- 
lation, escaped  notice.  These  traditional  features,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, had  been  engrafted  upon  the  several  States  that  entered  the 
Union  while  they  were  under  monarchical  rule,  and  thus  their  legisla- 
tion partook  —  in  some  States  more  and  in  some  less  —  of  the  English 
feudal  character.  They  became  members  of  the  Union  with  these 
feudal  features  and  these  English  monarchical  laws,  with  the  barbarism 
of  an  unknown  common  law,  of  colonial  slavery,  and  other  elements  of 
prei'ogative  power,  judicial  despotism,  and  monej^-monopoly  worship, 
that  still  taint  their  political  systems,  and  which  they  in  their  turn 
engrafted  more  or  less  upon  the  new  States  that  organized  subse- 
quently under  the  Union.  All  these  feudal  chains  were  incompatible 
with  the  idea  of  the  new  republic.  It  is  amazing  that  this  should 
have  excited  no  attention  or  discussion,  and  that  the  people  should 
have  voluntaril}'  saddled  themselves  with  that  huge  body  of  legal 
despotism,  the  common  law  of  England,  of  the  true  nature  of  which 
they  were  necessarily  utterly  ignorant.  And  yet,  they  continued  to 
put  these  shackles  on  their  own  young  limbs,  as  one  after  another 
new  States,  with  their  constitutions,  laws,  municipal  charters  and  ordi- 
nances, county  and  township  regulations,  organized  themselves  upon 
the  old  colonial  foundations  instead  of  the  foundations  of  their  own 
new  federative  republic. 

Hence  have  naturally  arisen  constant  conflicts  and  collisions  be- 
tween municipal  and  State  laws,  colonial  laws  and  new  State  consti- 
tutions, State  laws  and  Federal  laws,  and  Federal  laws  and  the  United 
States  Constitution  ;  conflicts  that  have  been  a  permanent  source  of 
uncertainty  to  the  citizens  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  their  rights, 
and  to  their  local  officials  as  to  the  extent  of  the  powers  conferred 
upon  them.  Hence  all  kinds  of  usurpations  and  monopolies  have 
grown  up,  as  a  natural  result  of  the  want  of  proper  checks  and  bal- 
ances and  well-adjusted  State  constitutions. 

The  Federal  and  State  constitutions  do  not  contain  any  practical 
limitations  to  the  sovereign  power  of  Congress  and  the  State  legisla- 
tures as  law-makers.  Within  fift}'-  years  past,  the  public  lands  and 
the  public  moneys  of  the  people  have  been  given  away  by  their  ser- 
vants, the  law-makers,  to  railways,  banking,  navigation,  and   other 

3 


34  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

corporate  despotisms  that  now  control  all  branches  of  our  govern- 
ment. 

It  is  evident  that  unless  our  form  of  government  is  to  result  in  a 
failure,  this  state  of  things  must  be  remedied  by  the  amendment  of 
our  State  and  Federal  constitutions.     We  must  invent  and  determine 
for  our  separate  State  organizations,  organic  laws  that  shall  not  inter- 
fere with  the  general  form  of  our  government,  and  yet  meet  all  the 
demands  of  a  well-regulated    State;    that  shall   not  merely  afford 
sccurit}^  to  persons  and  to  property  against  direct  violence  and  fiaud, 
but  protect  men  also  from  illegal  monopolies,  from  legislative  usurpa- 
tions, from  fraud,  impurity,  and  ignorance  ;  that  shall  not  merely  in 
negative  apathy  permit  the  individual  reformers  and  laborers  in  the 
:fields  of  science  and  knowledge  to  prosecute  their  investigations, 
experiments,  and  researches,  but  shall  extend  to  them  proper  aid, 
whereby  all  their  labors  may  be  joined  in  one  common  effort  for  the 
advancement  of  mankind,  under  a  true  and  proper  form  of  repre- 
sentative government.     The  unexpectedly  rapid  development  of  our 
States  and  the  sudden  growth  of  cities  press  with  resistless  force  for 
the  establishment  of  such  a  perfected  system  of  State  governments 
adapted  to  their  own  support.     This  is  what  the  labor  organizations 
mean  when  they  clamor  for  changes   which  shall   secure   to  them 
healthier  dwelhng-places  and  more  time  for  self-culture  ;  this  is  what 
outraged  communities  mean  when  they  protest  against  the  corrupt 
monopolies  of  the  age,  and  the  overshadowing  despotism  of  railroad, 
bankino-,   and  telegraphic  corporations  that  have   neither   local   nor 
political  connection  with  them,  and  yet  place  themselves  beyond  all 
reo-ulations  of  order,   safety,   and  economy  from  the  communities  to 
-which  their  roads  or  their  other  monopolies  have  become  a  necessity ; 
and  herein  also  lies  the  solution  of  the  dangers  threatened  by  the 
increase   of    the   ignorant   classes,  which    always    accompanies   the 
increase  of  monopoUes  and  aristocracies. 

At  the  same  time  we  mu^t  amend  our  Federal  organization  in  such 
a  way  that  it  shall  at  once  allow  the  separate  States  to  make  these 
additional  laws,  and  itself  assist  in  enforcing  them.  Thus,  it  is  nec- 
essary for  a  true  system  of  federative  government  to  protect  all 
citizens  in  their  common  rights  of  intercommunication  by  land,  seas, 
oceans,  rivers,  and  all  highways.  The  railways,  roadways,  telegraphic 
lines,  and  all  other  channels  of  intercommunication  and  commerce 


HISTORICAL.  35 

must  be,  in  a  federative  republic,  under  the  direction  and  control  of  the 
federative  and  State  governments.  The  framers  of  our  present  Con- 
stitution knew  this  well  enough,  but  the  clause  which  they  put  into  it 
to  carry  this  out  was  so  vague  and  general,  that  it  has  remained  without 
any  practical  effect.  The  people,  who  are  the  true  source  of  all  politi- 
cal and  other  power  in  a  republic,  control  the  State ;  and  if  the  State 
•controls  the  intercommunication  between  its  citizens,  the  great  fran- 
chises of  free  trade  and  commerce  and  of  national  money-making 
for  national  circulation"  will  be  preserved  to  the  people,  and  not 
granted  away  to  usurping  monopolies,  which  thereby  acquire  by 
legislative  grants  the  power  to  tax  the  people  without  their  consent, 
in  direct  violation  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

I  purpose  now  to  trace  out  the  fundamental  principles  and  chief 
requirements  of  these,  our  State  organic  laws,  to  show  the  necessity 
of  a  radical  change,  and  detail  the  duties  of  a  political  Common- 
■wealth  in  making  provision  for  the  utmost  development  of  the  physi- 
cal, intellectual,  and  moral  faculties  of  its  citizens;  all  the  time, 
however,  observing  the  limits  within  which  such  provisions  may  be 
made  without  trenching  upon  the  rights  of  the  individual,  for  whose 
Ijenefit  alone  each  State  and  our  Federation  was  organized.  It  is  in 
this  latter  point  that  my  work  will  find  its  relation  to  the  commen- 
taries of  our  great  constitutional  expounders,  as  well  as  its  distinction 
from  the  arbitrary  dogmas  of  writers  like  Plato,  Rousseau,  Voltaire, 
and  others,  who  may  have  had  invention  enough  to  propound  gilded 
theories  of  an  ethical  government,  but  lacked  legal  training  to  deter- 
mine its  limits  by  the  universal  conception  of  law  as  applied  to  the 
government  of  a  State  designed  to  belong  to  a  federation  of  several 
States. 

In  part,  even  our  present  forms  of  State  legislation  transcend  the 
limited  sphere  of  mere  direct  protection  against  violence  and  fraud. 
Nor  can  it  well  be  otherwise  so  soon  as  people  come  in  close  contact 
with  each  other.  So  long  as  men  live  at  considerable  distances  from 
each  other,  on  tracts  of  laud  large  enough  to  prevent  the  immediate 
perception  of  injurious  influences  upon  each  other, — by  impi'oper 
construction  of  their  dwellings,  for  instance,  or  uncleanliness  and  dis- 
ease of  their  bodies,  —  and  so  long  as  commerce  and  money  have  not 
yet  collected  into  great  centres,  and  thus  established  despotic  monop- 
ohcs,  legislation  for  protection  against  such  injurious  influences  and 
monopolies  will  not  even  be  thought  of.     Such  was  the  general  con- 


36  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

dition  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  former  times ;  and  when, 
gradually,  larger  cities  began  to  grow  up,  and  railways,  banks,  and 
commerce  to  assume  gigantic  proportions,  it  did  not  at  first  occur  to 
their  inhabitants  that  another  class  of  laws  had  become  necessary, 
than  the  class  which  had  been  sufficient  to  secure  life,  liberty,  and 
property  from  direct  assault  and  tyrannic  oppression.     It  was  only 
constant  aiid  continued  experience,  pressing  for  the  inauguration  of 
measures  that  were  found  necessary,  which  dictated  a  legislation  that 
was  rather  merely  submitted  to  than  accepted  from  a  comprehension 
of  its  necessity  and  justice.     In  this  way  municipal  ordinances  regu- 
lating the  building  of  houses,  the  behavior  of  persons,  the  power  of 
corporations,  and  a  thousand  other  matters  that  had  been  considered 
the   exclusive   concern   of  individual   notion    and   inclination,   were 
tacitly  acquiesced  in,  and  taxes  for  sanitary,  reformatory,  and  other 
purposes  paid  without  very  earnest  opposition.     Nevertheless,   the 
doubt  of  their  legality  always  remained ;  nor  was  the  general  prin- 
ciple of  these  measures  ever  laid  down  and  detjermined.     It  seems- 
strange,  indeed,  and  yet  it  is  none  the  less  true,  that  there  really  wa& 
not  and  is   not  any  difference  in  the  general  principle  of  legality 
underlying  these  measures,  and  that  the  only  doubt  and  difficulty 
respecting  them  arose  and  arises  from  the  consideration  of  the  nec- 
essary space  to  be  allowed  for  the  inhabitants  of  cities  and  villages.. 
It  is  the  distance,  the  extent  of  space  between  one  farm  and  another,, 
which  in  their  cases  renders  it  difficult  to  perceive  that  there  is  an 
actual  injury  done  by  one  man  to  another,  an  infringement  perpetrated 
upon  the  individual's  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  property.     We  can 
see  easily  the  direct  connection  between  the   injury  and  the   deed 
when  one  man  kills  or  assaults  another  in  the  street,  but  it  is  rather 
a  difficult  matter  to  trace  injurious  effects  to  the  neighbor  who  builds- 
a  vitriol  or  a  gas  factory  near  my  house,  or  builds' an  adjoining  dwell- 
ing with  insufficient  drainage,  etc.  ;  and  nevertheless  the  encroach- 
ment upon  my  life,  or  it  may  be  upon  my  property,  is  the  same  ia 

either  case. 

Should  such  amendments  to  the  organic  laws  of  the  States  of  the 
Federation  as  I  purpose  here  to  sketch,  be  adopted,  results  would 
follow  surpassing  even  the  dreams  our  most  sanguine  political  pa- 
triots have  dared  to  indulge  in.  A  body  of  men  and  women  would 
be  raised,  healthy,  and  intellectually  cultivated  to  a  degree  which 
would  make  them  as  nearly  as  possible  inaccessible  to  physical  and 


HISTORICAL.  .  37 

moral  evils,  fit  exponents  and  representatives  of  the  idea  that  gave 
life  to  them. 

The  world  of  nature  it  would  change  and  turn  into  a  grand  land- 
scape-garden, aesthetically  representative  of  the  world  of  mind  and 
freedom  under  equal  laws,  the  fit  habitation  of  such  noble  beings  as 
men  can  become,  a  true  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  every  element  of 
nature  subject  to  the  free  and  harmonious  directing  powers  of  the 
human  mind.  Far  from  disfiguring  or  making  ungainly  the  aspect 
of  nature,  as  they  do  now,  men's  habitations — -the  cities,  houses, 
streets,  alleys,  boulevards,  etc.  —  would  fall  into  harmony  with  their 
natural  sites,  and  by  architectural  beauty,  order,  and  cleanliness, 
irradiate  loveliness  in  every  direction. 

It  would  make  all  men  equal,  under  just  laws,  by  regulating  their 
intercommunication  through  money  and  commerce  in  a  rational  man- 
ner, by  raising  up  the  lowest  to  the  highest  degree  of  culture,  and 
securing  to  each  individual,  through  an  organized  system  ©f  labor, 
sufficient  leisure  to  acquire  the  greatest  freedom  and  knowledge. 
The  existing  rivalry  between  rich  and  poor  would  thus  cease  of  itself, 
and  find  its  amelioration,  if  not  its  annihilation,  in  a  common  coopera- 
tive effort  to  realize  the  highest  good  and  happiness  for  each  one  and 
for  all. 

In  its  ultimate  results  it  would  dispel  from  the  minds  of  men  every 
element  of  darkness  and  superstition.  For  in  the  highest  school  of 
the  State,  the  university,  the  highest  science,  the  philosophy  of 
knowledge,  would  be  taught,  and  would  illuminate  every  region  of 
human  knowledge  by  analyzing  that  knowledge  itself.  The  foolish 
fear  of  an  angry  God  would  change  into  adoration  of  His  love  and 
wisdom,  and  the  superstitious  dread  of  the  future  world  into  serene 
and  happy  assuredness  of  immortal,  infinitely  continuing  revelations  of 
new  beauty.  Men  would  no  longer  harass  their  minds  and  souls  with 
idle  speculation,  but  would  work  out  their  true  mission :  to  attain  and 
enjoy  the  greatest  good,  happiness,  and  wisdom.  For,  to  enable 
men  to  do  this  should  be  the  exclusive  final  end  and  aim  of  a  gov-  ^ 
ernment  of  law. 

Even  as  the  grand  aim  of  the  divine  government  of  the  universe 
is  manifestl}^  by  wise,  harmonious,  and  progressive  laws  of  develop- 
ment to  work  out  to  the  fullest  perfection  all  forms,  faculties,  and 
intelligences  of  the  creatures  on  earth,  so  a  human  government  of 
law  should  resemble  as  nearly  as  may  be  this  divine  government  of 


38  •  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

nature,  and  should,  therefore,  in  its  organic  constitutional  code,  pro- 
vide for  the  attainment  of  the  greatest  good,  happiness,  and  wisdom 
by  the  people  of  the  State ;  and  as  the  perntanence  and  certainty  of 
the  laws  of  nature  are  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  divine 
order  of  nature  and  the  lives  of  all  the  creatures  existing  in  it,  so  the 
certainty  and  permanence  of  the  organic  laws  of  a  State  are  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  human  order  or  true  freedom  under  the  law^ 
so  that  all  persons  in  the  State  may  attain  and  enjoy  the  greatest  good 
and  happiness  of  which  their  organization  and  faculties  are  capable, 
without  in  any  way  interfering  with  the  proper  freedom,  activity,  and 
happiness  of  others. 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDEKATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  39 


GEKEKAL    PEIlvrCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERA- 
TIVE   GOYERNMEKT. 


CHAPTER    I. 

FUNDAMENTAL   PRINCIPLES. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  such  a  constitutional  code  is:  — 

Affirmatively:  To  provide  for  the  harmonious,  temperate,  fit,  and 
best  use  attainable  of  all  the  faculties  of  mind  and  body  of  each  person, 
so  that  each  one  may  have,  under  the  law,  the  possibility  of  attain- 
ing, without  any  of  the  hindrances  of  ignorance,  impurity,  fraud,  or 
tyranny,  the  greatest  good,  happiness,  inspiration,  wisdom,  beauty, 
love,  and  perfection  of  which  his  faculties  and  organization  are  capa- 
ble :  first,  for  himself ;  second,  for  his  family ;  and,  third,  for  the 
society  or  State  in  which  he  lives. 

Negatively:  To  prohibit  each  person  from  intemperate,  inharmo- 
nious, reckless,  hurtful,  or  unfit  abuse  or  use  of  either  or  any  of  the 
faculties  of  his  mind  and  bod}^ 

These  two  propositions  will  indicate  and  test  the  true  objects  of  all 
codes,  constitutions,  and  laws,  and  the  true  character  of  all  legisla- 
tive, judicial,  and  executive  governmental  operations  for  the  govern- 
ment of  men  under  State  and  federative  systems  of  government. 


CHAPTER    n. 

ANALYSIS   OF  FUNDAMENTAL   PEINCIPLES. 

The  essence  of  man  is  freedom.     It  is  this  that  distinguishes  him 
from  all  other  beings,  and  makes  it  impossible  to  mistake  him  for  a 


40  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

mere  animal.  All  other  beings  are  complete  in  bodily  organization  ; 
man  alone  is  incomplete.  All  other  bodies  are  sufficient  and  perfectly 
determined  in  their  structure ;  but  the  body  of  man  is  insufficient, 
and  simpl}'  infinitely  determinable.  What  he  is  at  birth  we  know  not; 
•what  he  is  to  be,  will  be  wrought  out  in  him  by  his  own  freedom  and 
activity,  under  just  and  comprehensive  laws. 

It  is  by  token  of  this  freedom,  when  manifested  in  the  world  of  nat- 
ure, that  man  proclaims  his  presence  over  the  gulf  of  many  thousand 
years,  and  in  the  rudest  tools  or  arms  of  prehistoric  times  announces 
Lis  existence.  History  is  nothing  but  a  record  of  man's  strife  for  the 
attainment  of  this  freedom  in  its  highest  degree  externally  through 
forms  of  government ;  culture,  nothing  but  an  endeavor  to  realize  it 
internally.  And  since  neither  development  can  be  realized  sepa- 
rately, the  establishment  of  a  State  organization,  which  shall  enable 
man  to  secure  the  fullest  freedom  of  mind,  of  person,  and  of  activ- 
ity, must  necessarily  accompany  and  be  accompanied  b}'^  higher 
culture  and  progress.  It  is  only  in  a  properl}'^  constructed  State 
organization  that  men  can  attain  that  complete  self-determination, 
that  development  and  subjection  to  his  free  control  of  all  the  facul- 
ties of  his  mind  and  body,  ^vhereby  he  will  be  enabled  to  use  them 
fitly  and  harmoniously,  under  judicious  and  wise  laws,  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  greatest  good  and  happiness  life  is  to  give  and  express, 
and  to  constitute  himself  a  truly  rational  being. 

No  one  individual  in  a  State  can  be  secure  in  his  freedom  under 
the  laws,  unless  every  other  individual  is  prohibited  from  interfering 
•with  it.  Had  each  individual  attained  full  development  of  his  moral 
nature  and  freedom,  this  prohibitory  character  of  law  would  be  un- 
necessary, for  the  free  wills  of  all  would  of  themselves  harmonize  in 
the  idea  of  the  greatest  good.  But  as  this  full  development  does  not 
•exist,  and  is  rather  the  very  object  to  be  realized,  the  inharmonious 
and  unfit  use  of  the  mental  and  bodilj'  faculties  of  the  one  individual 
constantly  interferes  with  the  freedom  and  progress  of  the  others, 
and  thus  needs  the  prohibition  of  its  inharmonious  exercise.  Men, 
in  establishing  governments  of  law,  must  adopt  the  plan  manifested 
in  those  laws  that  are  established  upon  fixed  principles,  of  universal 
application,  and  announce  themselves  in  unvarj'ing  succession. 

ijpon  the  foregoing  fundamental  principles,  affirmative  and  nega- 
tive, all  laws  and  governments  of  law  are  grounded ;  through  them 
alone  the  achievement  of  an  ultimate  ethical  and  legal  organization 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  41 

within  the  State  is  made  possible.  Another  six  thousand  years  might 
pass  away,  and  bring  mankind  but  Uttle  nearer  to  its  ideal,  unless 
these  principles  were  carried  out  in  a  State  organization  and  even- 
tually established  over  the  whole  extent  of  a  federative  republic. 
Great  moral  and  intellectual  advancement  of  the  race  is  but  a  dream, 
so  long  as  there  are  ignorant  and  wicked  wretches  on  all  sides  in  a 
State  to  check  and  injure  the  development  of  higher  culture.  So  long 
as  filth,  folly,  and  impropriety  everywhere  offend  the  purer,  wiser, 
and  more  cultured  persons,  there  can  be  but  limited  and  obstructed 
advancement ;  and  legislation  has  hitherto  looked  upon  these  mat- 
ters as  if  it  had  no  concern  with  them  at  all.  Thus  the  highest  of  all 
arts  and  the  grandest  of  all  sciences,  the  art  and  science  of  states- 
manship, in  the  noblest  sense  of  the  word, — the  art  and  science  of 
organizing  men  into  a  complete  harmonious  union  and  activity, 
wherein  each  one  shall  have  all  his  faculties  developed  to  their  highest 
practical  possibility,  and  wherein  all  shall  artisticall}'  and  scientifically 
combine  to  make  their  common  property,  the  earth,  a  beautiful  and 
liarraoniously  cultivated  whole,  a  paradise,  not  of  primitive  nature 
and  idleness,  but  of  cultivated  reason,  scientific  knowledge,  and 
joyful  labor, — has  hitherto  not  even  been  possible,  for  want  of  State 
organizations  wherein  to  establish  and  apply  it. 

In  no  other  way  than  by  means  of  such  a  State  and  federative 
organization  can  tlie  citizens  achieve  their  true  destination  as  free- 
men, w^orthy  to  enjoy  ''Liberty  and  Law"  under  federative  govern- 
ment. In  no  other  way  can  the  gigantic  conflict  between  men  and 
uature  be  successfully  carried  on  to  victory,  their  forces  and  knowl- 
edge being  severallj^  cultivated  to  their  highest  perfection,  and 
assigned  to  specific  parts  of  an  organized  plan. 

It  is  only  by  means  of  a  practical  code  of  self-supporting  laws, 
providing  for  the  purity,  health,  training,  education,  protection, 
political  equality,  and  happiness  of  each  citizen,  and  regulating  under 
general  laws  all  intercommunication  between  all  persons,  that  the 
people  can  be,  fnll}'^  protected  from  the  selfishness,  t3'ranny,  extor- 
tion, and  ambition  of  the  many  monopolizing,  fraudulent,  and  cor- 
rupt corporations,  always  vigilantl}^  watching  every  opportunity  to 
rob  the  mas.ses  of  their  rights,  franchises,  and  liberties  for  the 
benefit  of  the  few,  who  rapaciously  swallow  up  the  resources  of  the 
States  and  the  nation,  by  using  the  government  itself  as  the  chief 
instrument  of  their  t3aann3',  by  bribing  and  corrupting  the  traitorous 


42  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

agents  of  the  people  —  the  State  and  Federal  legislatures  —  to  grant 
to  their  monopolies  the  public  lands,  the  public  charters,  the  common 
public  rights  of  intercommunication,  of  banking,  of  telegraphing, 
and  of  using  the  public  highways  and  the  public  domain  with  electro- 
magnetic telegraphs  and  steam  railways. 

The  individual  alone  may,  to  some  extent,  realize  his  destination 
and  ideal  in  his  own  internal  culture ;  but  as  a  member  of  humanity, 
and  citizen  of  a  State,  he  cannot  achieve  even  this,  his  own  end, 
perfectly,  unless  he  assists  in  achieving  the  destination  of  his  kind  by 
cooperation  and  united  effort,  under  wise  and  just  laws,  and  in  keep- 
ing down  all  forms  of  despotism  in  his  State.  The  subjugation  of 
nature  and  all  her  turbulent  elements  is  a  task  utterly  beyond  the 
power  of  individuals,  and  until  their  subjugation  is  completed  no 
individual  can  rise  to  his  own  highest  development. 

To  attain  these  ends,  the  constitutional  codes  will  have  to  apply 
the  above  fundamental  principles  to  the  three  functions  of  man: 
as,  first,  a  physical  body  in  the  world  of  nature  ;  second,  an  intelli- 
gent being  in  the  world  of  intelligence ;  and,  third,  a  social  being  in 
the  world  of  the  State ;  and  hence  it  will  have  to  legislate  in  its  posi- 
tive character  concerning  — 

1.  Public  hygiene. 

2.  Public  education. 

3.  Public  intercommunication. 

And  in  its  negative  character  concerning  the  — 

1.  Establishment  of  a  Federal  code. 

2.  Establishment  of  a  code  of  laws  for  the  States. 

3.  Establishment  of  a  federative  and  international  code,  to  secure 
Liberty  and  Law,  against  all  the  powers  of  despotism,  to  all  the 
nations  of  the  world. 

For  reasons  which  will  appear  in  the  course  of  this  investigation, 
I  shall  consider,  first,  the  negative  requirements  of  such  constitu- 
tional codes,  and  after  that,  proceed  to  the  more  lengthy  considera- 
tion of  its  positive  requirements. 


PKINCIPLES    or    A    rEDEKATlVE    GOVERNMENT.  43 

CHAPTER    III. 

THEIR   REALIZATION   IN  A   FEDERATIVE   REPUBLIC. 

It  is  very  evident,  from  all  the  preceding,  that  great  and  man}'^  re- 
forms must  be  instituted  in  the  present  form  of  our  federative  gov- 
ernment, if  such  a  scheme  as  I  have  suggested  is  to  be  realized. 
Tiiere  must  be  changes  made  in  the  form  of  the  Federal  government 
itself,  and  in  the  forms  of  the  government  of  the  several  separate 
States.  But  there  is  only  one  mode  in  which  such  changes  can  be 
constitutionally  inaugurated.  This  mode  is  the  amendment  of  our 
present  National  Constitution,  and,  secondarily,  of  most  of  our  State 
constitutions. 

Now,  it  is  true,  that  such  amendments  may  be  made  in  the  ease  of 
our  Federal  Constitution  simply  by  getting  Congress  to  formulate  them 
and  submit  them  to  the  States  for  their  indorsement.  But  I  am  very 
sure  that  such  a  method  would  be  altogether  impracticable  for  the 
establishment  of  such  thorough,  and  yet  necessary  changes  in  our 
form  of  government  as  are  outlined  in  this  book.  • 

I  propose,  therefore,  that  a  National  Constitutional  Convention  be 
called  by  the  people  of  the  several  States,  to  remodel  our  present 
Federal  Constitution  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  that  liave 
grown  up  within  the  last  century.  * 

I  am  well  aware  that  there  is  a  general  objection  to  what  is  called 
"tinkering"  with  the  Constitution  handed  down  to  us  by  the  wise 
founders  of  our  republic,  —  an  objection  founded  on  the  conserva- 
tive, let- well-alone  disposition  of  human  nature,  — but  the  most  in- 
tensely conservative  man,  if  he  is  otherwise  fair-minded,  cannot  but 
confess,  that  a  century  of  a  nation's  life  —  and  especially  such  a 
century  as  our  nation  has  lived  —  must  needs  make  necessary  vast 
changes  in  all  the  departments  of  its  government.  Nor  can  it  be 
disputed,  that  of  the  two  modes  of  amending  our  Constitution,  that 
by  a  general  national  convention  alone  can  be  effective. 

Our  Congress,  let  it  be  remembered,  is  not  a  body  like  the  British 
Parliament,  which  has  the  power,  substantially,  of  changing  the  un- 
written Constitution  of  Great  Britain  at  any  time.  The  fact  that  we 
have  a  written,  permanent  Constitution,  places  the  power  of  amend- 
ing it  in  the  hands  of  the  people  alone,  and  is  its  greatest  safeguard. 


44  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Nor  can  I  perceive  an}'  great  danger  in  calling  a  National  Conven- 
tion. That  cry  seems  to  be  raised  mainly  by  politicians,  monopolists, 
and  corporations,  who  fatten  under  the  present  order,  or  rather  dis- 
order, of  tilings,  and  dread  any  change.  It  is,  however,  precisely 
to  check  their  power  that  such  changes  as  are  suggested  in  this  work 
have  become  indispensable. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  REQUIREMENTS   OF   A   FEDERATIVE   REPUBLIC. 

It  has  usually  been  held,  since  the  days  of  Montesquieu,  that  the 
only  requirements  of  a  federative  republic  are  a  proper  regulation 
between  the  general  government  and  the  several  States  which  com- 
pose the  federation,  and  the  division  of  the  power  of  the  general 
government  into  three  departments, — the  executive,  the  legislative, 
and  thefjudicial. 

Now,  I  hold  that  this  is  not  by  any  means  sufficient.  The  first 
proposition  —  namely,  that  the  relation  between  the  general  govern- 
ment and  the  separate  State  organizations  composing  it  must  be 
deafly  enunciated  in  a  written  constitution  —  is,  of  course,  incontro- 
vertible. 

But  much  may  be  said  about  the  propriety  of  leaving  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  three  departments  into  which  the  government  is  to  be 
divided,  open  to  chance  or  mere  caprice.  Take,  as  an  instance,  the 
legislative  department,  —  our  Congress  of  the  United  States.  Now, 
the  Federal  Constitution  was  the  work  of  only  thirteen  States.  At 
present,  however,-  those  thirteen  States  have  expanded  into  thirty- 
eight  States  and  ten  Territories,  if  we  include  Alaska;  and  more 
States  are  to  come  from  these  Territories.  To  remed}'  this  defect,  I 
propose  to  divide  our  one  Union  into,  say,  five  sub-Unions.  This 
suggestion  ma}'  seem  audacious  in  the  extreme  to  many  of  m}'  read- 
ers, but  on  mature  reflection  the  necessity  of  this  proposed  change 
in  our  present  Union  will  become  apparent  enough. 

We  all  are  striving  towards  the  same  end, — a  world-confed- 
eration.    How    attain   it?     The   miniature    model    was  built    up  by 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  45 

the  fathers  of  this  republic.  The  foundation  was :  a  number  of 
States  organized  into  one  Federal  Union.  But  the  thirteen  States 
which  went  to  make  up  the  original  miniature  model  have  since  ex- 
panded into  thirty-eight  States  and  ten  Territories.  Now,  how  shall 
we  preserve  the  federative  principle,  which  is  the  basis  of  our  repub- 
lic, and  at  the  same  time  keep  this  colossus  of  States  manageable? 
I  see  no  other  practical  mode  than  that  just  suggested,  of  a  division 
of  the  one  Union  of  the  United  States  into,  say,  five  sub-Unions,  with 
a  common  congress,  judiciary,  and  executive  for  each.  Having 
achieved  this  problem,  we  can  readily,  in  the  course  of  time,  organize 
all  the  States  of  North  and  South  America  into  similar  Unions,  with 
locally  independent  congresses,  judiciaries,  and  executives,  and  unite 
them  with  ours  into  one  government,  — an  American  government. 

In  course  of  time  again,  the  same  phenomenon  will  exhibit  itself  in 
the  other  continents  of  the  world,  and  realize  the  same  end.  Then,  and 
only  then,  can  we  say  that  the  prophecy  of  Christ,  which  Tennyson 
has  so  aptly  worldlitied,  has  been  fulfilled,  and  that,  in  spite  of 
scoffers,  there  has  arisen  into  life  a  "  Confederation  of  the  World." 
Now,  the  radical  changes  I  suggest  in  the  departments  of  our 
federative  government  are  somewhat  as  follows:  — 

I.  The  organization  of  the  executive  power  should  be  remodelled 
so  as  to  do  away  with  those  four-yearly  presidential  elections,  that 
keep  perennially  alive  political  partisan  excitement.  If  the  Union 
as  it  exists  at  present  is  subdivided  into,  say,  five  sub-Unions, 'each 
one  electing  its  own  president,  congress,  and  judiciary,  then  those 
five  presidents  would  choose,  at  every  congressional  session,  a  presi- 
dent for  the  whole  Union  out  of  their  number,  and  those  four-yearly 
excitements  would  disappear.  Then,  next,  the  executive  power  should 
be  so  curtailed  as  to  make  elective  as  many  as  possible  of  the  offices 
now  filled  by  appointment.  I  may  instance  the  offices  of  postmasters 
and  revenue-collectors.  In  this  way  the  executive  would  become 
again  what  the  founders  of  the  Constitution  intended  him  to  be :  the 
chief  executive  of  the  law-making  power  of  Congress ;  whereas 
under  the  present  state  of  things  he  is  simply  a  figure-head,  so  far 
£(s  the  welfare  of  the  people  is  concerned,  and  useful  only  as  the 
head  of  his  party,  whose  leaders  he  can  reward  by  the  gift  of  Federal 
offices. 

II.  The  organization  of  the  legislative  power  should  be  remodelled 
so  as  to  change  an  elected  member  of  Congress,  from  being  a  mere  re- 


46  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

ceiver  of  bribes,  into  an  active  political  representative  of  his  constitu- 
ents. Tliis  also  can  be  most  readily  effected  by  a  division  of  the 
whole  Union  into,  say,  five  sub-Unions,  each  of  which  will  have  a  sep- 
arate congress.  The  members  of  these  five  congresses,  when  meeting 
together,  would  constitute  the  great  Congress  of  the  whole  United 
States.  As  a  matter  of  course,  it  is  of  importance  that  this  Con- 
gress, while  representing  every  local  section  of  the  country,  should 
also  be  as  small  in  numbers  as  practicable.  In  regard  to  the  lower 
house  this  is  easily  enough  attainable.  But  a  greater  difficulty  arises 
when  we  approach  the  Senate.  No  country  on  the  earth  ever  had 
such  a  Senate  as  that  called  into  being  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Two  senators  from  each  State,  no  matter  how  geo- 
graphically large  or  populously  filled  that  State  may  be!  Little 
Rhode  Island  on  a  par  with  gigantic  Texas ;  populous  New  York 
on  an  equality  with  Nebraska!  Now,  this  whole  anomal^^  would 
be  swept  away  at  once  by  the  subdivision  of  the  Union  into  the 
five  Unions  proposed  by  me ;  for  then  each  of  the  five  sub-Unions 
might  choose  by  general  election  a  specified  number  of  senators, 
without  regard  to  the  number  of  States  represented,  or  to  geographi- 
cal extent. 

III.  The  reconstruction  of  the  whole  judiciary  system  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  being  at  present  no  longer 
able  to  transact  the  business  devolving  upon  it  under  the  Federal. 
Constitution  and  laws,  a  portion  of  the  original  and  appellate  juris- 
diction of  this  court  should  be  vested  in  another  court. 

Hence  the  new  Constitution  should,  above  all,  provide  for  what  I 
may  call  an  Interstate  National  Court,  to  remove  all  jurisdiction  from 
the  present  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  over  Federal  constitu- 
tional questions,  controversies  between  States,  and  between  citizens 
of  the  United  States  and  any  State,,  or  the  Federal  government,  and 
all  questions  of  conflict  between  State  and  Federal  constitutions. 
This  jurisdiction  should  be  appellate  only,  except  in  controversies 
between  States,  and  on  writs  of  mandamus,  quo  warranto,  prohibi- 
tion, etc.,  in  which  the  jurisdiction  should  be  original. 

This  new  Interstate  National  Court  might  be  composed  of  twenty- 
five  judges,  five  to  be  taken  from  each  of  the  sub-Unions  of  the 
United  States. 

The  present  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  instead  of  nine 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  47 

justices,  ought  to  have  at  least  twenty-one,  the  senior  justice  being 
chief  justice. 

Tlie  circuit  judges  should  also  he  increased  to  the  number  of  at  least 
twenty-one,  and  the  circuits  should  be  increased  to  the  same  number. 
Each  one  of  the  Supreme  Court  justices  should  hold  court  with  his 
circuit  judge  and  the  District  Court  judges  for  two  months  in  each 
year. 

Four  supreme  justices  and  four  circuit  judges  should  hold  an 
intermediate  appellate  court  for  two  months  at  the  capital  of  each 
one  of  the  five  sub-Unions  of  the  United  States,  to  hear  and  determine 
all  appeals,  quo  warranto,  certiorari,  mandamus,  etc.,  with  appeals  in 
certain  cases  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  or  to  the 
Interstate  National  Court,  as  the  case  may  be. 

The  Supreme  Court  should  hold  its  sessions  for  six  months  in  each 
year  at  the  Federal  capital  city,  as  an  appellate  tribunal ;  and  there 
should  be  five  chambers,  for  different  members  of  the  court  to  hold 
five  courts  for  the  more  speedy  hearing  and  decision  of  cases.  The 
justices  might  be  allotted  to  different  court-rooms,  thus:  Room 
number  one,  with  three  justices  for  hearing  cases  in  admiralty ;  room 
number  two,  with  five  justices  for  hearing  cases  in  equity;  room 
number  three,  with  three  justices  for  hearing  cases  of  revenue,  pre- 
emption, and  mining  claims ;  room  number  four,  with  three  justices 
for  hearing  patent-right  and  copyright  cases  ;  room  number  five,  with 
seven  justices  for  hearing  all  other  cases  not  hereinbefore  allotted  to 
the  other  rooms.  All  cases  decided  in  these  several  rooms  might  be 
certified  to  the  twenty-one  justices  sitting  in  banc,  on  demand  of 
either  party. 

At  the  request  of  one-third  of  the  justices  in  either  one  of  said 
five  rooms,  any  case  therein  decided  might  be  referred  to  the  whole 
court  of  twenty-one  justices,  sitting  in  banc,  for  a  more  full  exam- 
ination and  final  decision,  subject  to  a  writ  of  error  to  the  Interstate 
National  Court  in  all  cases  where  said  court  has  appellate  jurisdiction. 

The  details  of  this  plan  can  be  easily  framed,  and  the  jurisdictions 
will  embrace  all  persons  in  tlie  repubUc  who  are  aUens  or  citizens  of 
the  States.  Each  State,  as  well  as  the  Federal  government,  should  be 
subject  to  an  action  at  the  suit  of  any  citizen,  or  alien,  or  corpora- 
tion, or  State,  for  any  just  claim  or  cause  of  action  whatever.  I 
would,  moreover,  urge  that  the  salaries  of  the  judiciary  be  increased 
so  as,  at  any  rate,  to  be  fairly  equal  to  salaries  received  by  other 


48  LIBERTY    AND    LAW, 

officers  or  the  government.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
is  certainly  as  high  and  august  a  power  as  that  of  the  executive. 
Why  then  should  it  not  be  paid  as  well?  Far  better  to  pay  judges  a 
fair  salary,  and  provide  a  proper  pension  for  them  in  their  old  age, 
than  expose  them  to  temptation  by  curtailing  their  salaries. 


CHAPTEKV. 

THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   CODIFICATION   OF   LAWS. 

When,  in  the  original  introduction  of  "Liberty  and  Law,"  I  an- 
nounced my  intention  of  applying  the  same  fundamental  principles 
established  in  that  work  in  a  subsequent  work  on  State,  National,  and 
International  Codes  and  Constitutions,  I  had  in  view  an  independent 
arid  more  extensive  book.  But  the  present  second  edition  of  this 
work  gives  me  a  chance  to  say  in  a  condensed  form  what  I  wished  to 
say  on  those  subject^,  — a  form  which  may  be  more  acceptable  to  the 
general  reader  than  an  extensive  work  on  codification.  I  shall 
therefore  proceed  to  sketch  the  outlines  of  such  a  system  of  codifi- 
cation as  may  be  applied  to  the  Federal,  State,  and  departmental 
forms  of  government  that  will  be  peculiar  to  the  United  States  under 
its  new  Constitution.  The  advantages  which  would  accrue  from  such 
a  codification,  if  systematically  effected,  will  be  apparent  at  once  to 
every  lawyer  and  judge.  Its  vast  political  importance  cannot  be 
readily  seen,  and  would  probably  be  realized  fully  only  after  it  had 
been  in  operation  for  some  time. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  after  the  completion  and  adoption  of  the 
codes  would  be  to  aboUsh  altogether,  in  every  part  of  the  land,  that 
unknown  quantity  called  Common  Law,  of  which  no  citizen  who  is  not 
a  lawyer  can  possibly  know  much,  since  it  is  not  printed  in  one  book, 
but  fragmentally  scattered  through  several  thousand  volumes,  and  of 
which  lawyers  and  judges  know  very  little  more  ilian  laymen,  as  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  they  are  always  at  loggerlieads  with  each 
other  as  to  what  this  common  law  is,  whenever  a  case  calls  for  its 
application.  It  is  of  this  common-law  system  that  the  English  lau- 
reate says : — 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  49 

"  So  Leolin  went;  and  as  we  task  ourselves 
To  learn  a  language  known  but  siuatteringly 
In  phrases  here  and  there  at  random,  — toiled. 
Mastering  the  lawless  science  of  our  law, 
That  codeless  myriad  of  precedent. 
That  wilderness  of  single  instances 
Through  which  a  few,  by  wit  or  fortune  led, 
May  beat  a  pathway  out  to  wealth  and  fame." 

And  forty  years'  practice  of  law  in  courts  of  every  degree  in  the 
United  States  authorizes  me,  I  thinlt,  to  say,  that  the  poet  has  not  in 
the  least  exaggerated  the  "  codeless  myriad  of  precedent"  that  con- 
stitutes the  common  law  of  England.  At  the  very  beginning  of  our 
government,  the  States  that  had  been  British  colonies,  and  had 
not  yet  had  time  to  make  codes  of  their  own  during  the  struggle  or 
after  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  may  have  acted  prudently  in  con- 
tinuing this  system ;  but  there  is  surely  no  reason  why  it  should  be 
retained  now. 

Not  only  that  it  is  unknown  and  inaccessible  to  the  citizens,  who  are 
nevertheless  required  to  regulate  their  actions  by  it, — it  being  one 
of  those  profound  legal  axioms,  which  only  lawyers  can  understand, 
that  ignorance  of  the  law  cannot  be  pleaded  as  an  excuse  in  court,  — 
but  it  conceals  a  most  subtle  foe  to  free  institutions,  by  making 
possible  the  establishment  of  a  judicial  despotism.  In  monarchical 
countries,  the  danger  arising  from  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  on 
the  part  of  the  judiciary  is  perhaps  not  so  threatening,  but  rather 
appears  somewhat  like  an  offset  to  the  despotism  of  the  crown,  and 
hence  as  a  protection  to  the  liberties  and  rights  of  the  people  ;  but 
under  our  republican  form  of  government  judicial  despotism  should 
be  carefully  guarded  against.  I  cite  the  conflicting  decisions  of  the 
Federal  Supreme  Court  on  the  legal-tender  quality  of  treasury-notes, 
wherein  it  was  decided,  at  first,  that  the  Legal-Tender  Act  of  1862 
was  unconstitutional,  1  and  then  very  soon  afterwards  it  was  very 
properly  decided,  that  the  same  act  was  constitutional  (1870).^ 

Again,  in  the  case  of  Murdock  &  Clark  v.  Governor  Woodson  and 
Attorney-General  Evving  (1874),  the  same  court  overthrew  the  Con- 
stitution of  Missouri  of  1865,  by  construing  the  words, ^  "The 
General  Assembly  shall  have  no  power,  for  any  purpose  whatever,  to 


1  S  Wall.  (303.        2  Legal-Tender  Cases,  12  Wall.  457.         ^  Art.  11,  sect.  15. 

4 


50  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

release  the  lien  held  by  the  State  upon  any  railroad,"  to  mean  that 
the  General  Assembly  had  that  power;  whereby  the  people  of  the 
State  of  Missouri  were  robbed  of  over  $26,000,000  of  money  justly 
due  the  State  by  railroad  companies,^  by  the  exercise  of  arbitrary- 
judicial  power. 

A  great  number  of  other  cases  could  be  cited,  showing  the 
gradual  decline  of  that  court  toward  judicial  despotism.  Thus 
the  common-law  S3'stem  gives  almost  unlimited  scope  to  judicial 
discretion,  and  judges  have  taken  the  precaution  to  announce, 
long  years  ago,  that  the  judicial  judgments  of  the  courts  are  not 
to  be  inquired  into  by  reason  of  any  fraud  on  the  part  of  mem- 
bers of  the  court  rendering  the  decisions.  From  the  justice  of 
the  peace,  through  all  the  gradations  of  judges,  up  to  the  highest 
court,  the  judges  are  not  liable  to  an  action  for  the  most^  erroneous 
judgments,  under  the  common-law  system.  For  that  system  permits 
the  application  of  the  facts  proved  to  almost  every  question  of  law  in 
so  undefined  and  uncertain  a  wa}-  as  to  leave  the  decision  entirely  to 
the  discretion  of  the  judge.  Hence,  when  you  go  into  court  with 
your  case,  you  don't  really  make  a  generally  known  and  commonly 
understood  code  of  law  your  arbitrator,  as  you  innocently  suppose 
you  do ;  but  the  man  who  happens  to  fill  the  judicial  chair  in  the  court 
where  your  case  comes  up  for  trial  can  decide  your  case  as  he 
pleases.  He  can  falsely  state  the  facts  in  your  bill  of  exceptions, 
and  you  have  no  remedy  against  the  judge.  I  may  add  that  an 
inevitable  result  of  the  judicial  despotism  thus  fostered  by  the 
common-law  system  is  to  destroy  the  confidence  of  the  people  in 
the  integrity  of  the  whole  judiciary. 

Wherever,  in  history,  we  find  one  man  or  several  men  combined 
together  for  a  common  purpose,  striving  for  unchecked  power,  we 
find  men  devoting  themselves  with  excessive  zeal  to  hunting  up  offices 
for  and  granting  favors  to  their  friends  and  relatives.  In  all  depart- 
ments of  government  this  is  a  dangerous  tendency,  but  in  the 
judicial  department  it  is  most  specially  so.  And,  worst  of  all,  the 
people  are  beginning  to  be  awakened  to  these  corrupt  influences,  and 
liunt  for  lawyers  who  have  the  ear  of  the  court,  and  who  can  get 
decisions  to  suit  the  client,  right  or  wrong. 


J  22  Wall.  351,  374. 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    lEDEKATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  51 

The  general  abolition  of  the  common-law  system  will  make  general 
codification  over  all  the  United  States  a  necessity,  and  terminate  the 
present  abuses  of  judicial  discretion. 

Under  our  duplex  form  of  government  we  should,  of  course,  have 
two  main  codes,  —  Federal  codes  and  State  codes,  —  each  State,  how- 
ever, framing  its  own  code  of  laws  quite  independently.  This  latter 
point,  I  must  confess,  seems  to  be  somewhat  of  an  obstacle  to  codi- 
fication for  a  republic  which  has  already  thirty-eight  States  as  its 
members.  But  the  difficulty,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  will  vanish  as 
soon  as  it  is  resolutely  grappled  with,  as  I  shall  show  directly. 

The  Federal  codes  should  contain  all  the  laws  of  the  republic  that 
are  of  general  application  and  administered  by  the  Federal  courts ; 
but  it  should  contain  nothing  but  those  laws.  The  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  the  several  departments  of  government,  which  at  present 
fill  up  more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  statutes  of  the  United  States,  — 
the  rules  that  govern  the  State,  Interior,  Treasury,  War,  Navy, 
and  Postal  Departments,  —  are  utterly  out  of  place  in  a  code  of  the 
general  laws  of  a  country,  and  ought  to  be  placed  in  a  separate, 
carefully  prei)ared  Departmental  code,  called  in  New  York  the  Polit- 
ical Code.  This  separation  may  appear  rather  captious,  but  is  really 
of  great  practical  importance.  If  we  take  out  from  the  present 
Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States  all  those  departmental  rules 
and  regulations,  we  shall  have  a  small  volume  of  Federal  legislation, 
which  every  citizen  can  handle  conveniently  and  afford  to  purchase. 
This  is  by  no  means  an  insignificant  matter.  The  law  ought  to  be 
accessible  to  every  citizen ;  and  not  merely  accessible  in  theory,  but 
practically.  This  is,  however,  absolutely  impossible  with  our  present 
statute-book  of  over  1,200  large  pages.  It  is  virtually  a  sealed 
book  to  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  except  the  few  who  have 
made  law  their  special  profession.  The  Code  Napoleon  or  the  New 
York  Code,  on  the  other  hand,  —  to  illustrate  my  meaning  by  the 
most  striking  examples  of  what  can  be  accomplished  within  the  sphere 
of  law,  in  the  way  of  popularity  and  clearness,  —  is  accessible  and 
intelligible  to  every  citizen  of  France,  or  of  New  York,  who  can 
read.  You  can  put  either  in  your  pocket  (so  much  for  convenience), 
and  read  it  for  the  sake  of  its  literary  beauty  alone  (so  much  for  its 
popularity).  It  appears  to  me,  that  if  the  departmental  rules  and 
regulations,  which  are  only  of  special  application,  were  taken  out  of 


52  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  Revised  Statutes,  it  would  reduce  the  size  of  the  volume  to  one- 
tenth  of  what  it  is  now ;  and  if  a  commission  of  clear-headed  lawyers 
were  to  condense  the  remainder  of  those  statutes  into  the  short,  clear 
sentences  that  distinguish  the  Cinq  Codes,  or  the  six  codes  of 
New  York,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  might  really  he  enabled  to 
know  —  what  the  law  supposes  him  to  know  under  penalty  —  the  law 
of  his  country.  Considering  that  the  Code  Napoleon  was  framed 
and  carried  into  practice  within  a  few  years  in  France,  and  that  it 
has  undergone  only  very  few  changes  since  its  first  introduction,  in 
spite  of  the  many  political  changes  that  France  has  passed  through, 
our  government  certainly  ought  to  find  it  an  easy  undertaking  to 
establish  a  permanent  Federal  code  of  laws  for  the  United  States ; 
more  especially  as  we  enjoy  two  vast  advantages  for  the  arrangement 
of  such  a  code :  Firstly,  in  that  we  have  a  written  Federal  Constitu- 
tion on  which  to  base  it,  so  far  as  Federal  legislation  is  concerned  \. 
and,  secondly,  in  that  our  form  of  government  closely  defines  and 
limits  the  jni-isdiction  of  the  Federal  courts. 

Such   a  Federal  code  of   laws  would   have   four  main  divisions: 
a  constitutional  code,  a  civil  code,  a  penal   code,  a  code    of  prac- 
tice, with  a  glossary  containing  the  meaning  of  each  word  in  either 
,  code,  to  protect  the  people  against  conflicting  constructions  of  the 
laws  contained  in  the  code. 

The  constitutional  code  sliould  be  definite,  and  not  embrace  such 
provisions  as  these  in  tlie  Federal  Constitution :  — 

"Art.  IV.,  sect.  4.  Tlie  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  CA^ery 
State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  pro- 
tect each  of  tliem  against  invasion,  and  on  application  of  the  legis- 
lature, or  of  the  executive  (when  the  legislature  cannot  be  convened)^ 
against  domestic  violence." 

Now,  this  clause  in  itself  is  wholly  obscure,  and  leaves  to  the  presi- 
dent, and  also  to  Congress,  a  discretionary  power  which  can  be 
abused  to  an  extent  extremely  dangerous  to  our  republican  form 
of  government,  as  was  witnessed  in  the  late  scandalous  interference 
of  Federal  authority  in  the  affairs  of  Louisiana  and  Arkansas;  and 
has  been  illustrated,  indeed,  throughout  the  whole  period  of  recon- 
struction in  the  Southern  States  since  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  In 
another  wa3%  this  power  was  abused  by  not  exercising  it  during  the 
strikes  of  a  few  years  ago. 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.    •  53 

The  interpretation  of  this  section  of  Article  IV.,  and  its  application 
to  the  various  cases  that  might  arise  under  it,  would  thus  form  a  nec- 
essary clause  of  the  constitutional  code. 

Sections  1  and  2  of  the  same  article  —  the  first  authorizing  Congress, 
"  by  general  laws,  to  prescribe  the  manner  in  which  the  acts,  records, 
and  proceedings  of  the  several  States  shall  be  proved,  and  the  effect 
thereof,"  and  the  second  providing  that  "the  citizens  of  each  State 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the 
several  States  "  —  clearly  need  the  same  exposition  in  the  constitu- 
tional code  ;  as,  indeed,  do  several  other  clauses. 

I  need  only  specify  a  few  more  here.  For  instance,  the  power  of 
the  Federal  government  to  collect  its  taxes  by  priority  to  the  collection 
of  the  State  taxes,  and  the  mode  of  enforcing  such  collection,  has 
been  constantly  subject  to  dispute,  and  decided  differently  in  dif- 
ferent States.  Whenever  the  question  arises  anew,  therefore,  it  is 
brought  up  anew  before  the  courts,  at  a  great  expense  to  the  parties 
concerned.  The  attorneys  on  each  side  are  able  to  quote  decisions 
in  their  favor,  and  quote  interpretations  from  the  standard  text-books 
on  the  subject  in  behalf  of  their  respective  causes ;  and  it  depends 
entirely  upon  the  discretion  of  the  court  before  which  such  a  cause  is 
brought,  how  it  will  be  interpreted.  A  Federal  code,  fixing  the  law 
on  the  subject  by  a  few  explicit  provisions,  would  settle  the  question 
at  once. 

The  same  can  be  said  of  the  naturalization  question,  which  also 
has  never  as  yet  been  uniformly  settled.  Quite  a  number  of  States 
admit  foreign -born  citizens  to  the  right  of  suffrage  although  they 
have  resided  only  one  year  in  this  country,  while  the  United  States 
oovernment  requires  a  residence  of  five  years  before  it  naturalizes 
foreigners.  The  question  that  here  arises  is  this :  whether  the  action 
of  those  States  is  not  in  conflict  with  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
liable  to  lead  to  serious  political  entanglements.  It  seems  somewhat 
contradictory  that  a  person  may  be  a  citizen  of  Missouri,  for  example, 
and  yet  not  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States ;  or  by  becoming  a  citi- 
zen of  Missouri,  become  also  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  in  spite 
of  the  naturalization  laws. 

Tlien  there  is  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  gives  Congress 
the  power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  several  States,  — a  power 
that  has  never  been  enacted  into  law.  and  the  framing  of  which  into 


54  •  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

statutory  provision  would  form  a  code  of  public  intercommunication 
on  the  principles  laid  down  in  this  work. 

In  short,  the  Federal  constitutional  code  would  define  the  relations 
between  the  Federal  government  and  the  several  State  governments 
as  they  would  be  announced  in  the  new  National  Constitution. 

The  Federal  civil  code  would  present  the  whole  body  of  the  civil 
law,  as  has  been  done  in  California  and  New  York,  with  the  other 
codes  requisite  to  administer  the  laws  of  the  Federal  government. 

The  Federal  political  code  would  establish,  in  statutory  form,  laws 
interpreting  the  rights,  duties,  and  obligations  of  official  persons  under 
the  present  laws,  and  as  they  are  to  be  fixed  in  the  new  Constitution 
and  laws  referred  to  by  me  in  the  present  work.  As  instances  of  this 
class  of  much-needed  legislation,  I  may  mention  National  and  State 
sanitary  laws,  educational  laws,  laws  authorizing  a  citizen  to  sue  the 
State,  laws  definitely  fixing  the  status  of  an  American  citizen,  the 
rights  and  duties  of  citizenship,  when  it  is  forfeited  by  expatriation, 
the  relation  of  women  to  citizenship,  and  the  status  of  male  and  female 
minors  in  regard  to  citizenship.  There  is  a  vast  field  open  here  for 
wholesome  National  and  State  legislation,  which  I  need  not  discuss  in 
detail.  I  may  add,  however,  that  the  proposed  Federal  civil  code 
ought  to  define  once  for  all  the  legal  character  of  the  marriage  rela- 
tion for  all  the  States  of  the  Union.  This  would,  amongst  other 
beneficial  results,  secure  the  abolition  of  the  unnatural  institution  of 
polygamy,  that  still  exists  in  parts  of  our  country. 

The  Federal  penal  code  could  be  readily  constructed  on  the  basis 
of  the  existing  United  States  statutory  provisions  relating  to  crime ; 
simply  shaping  them  into  a  compact  and  intelligible  form,  and  sup- 
plementing them  by  further  provisions  when  necessary. 

The  details  of  a  Federal  code  of  civil  and  criminal  practice  would 
be  out  of  place  in  a  book  like  this.  The  State  code  should,  so  far  as 
possible,  be  the  same  for  each  State  in  the  Union.  There  must,  of 
necessity,  be  some  difference  on  trivial  matters  in  the  thirty-eight 
State  codes  required  for  our  republic ;  but  as  California  and  New 
York  have,  as  above  stated,  already  created  codes  which  may  readily 
be  adopted  in  all  the  States,  each  other  State  might  simply  make 
special  modifications  for  any  necessary  differences. 

A  State  code  has  already  been  prepared  for  the  State  of  New 
York  by   counsellors  of    eminent  ability,  —  D.  Dudley  Field,   Wm. 


PRlNCli^LES    OF    A    FEDEKATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  55 

Curtis  No3^es,  and  Alexander  W.  Bradford,  —  which  was  reported  to 
the  Legislature  of  tliat  State  in  Februar}^  1865,  by  the  surviving 
code  commissioners  under  the  act  of  April  6,  1857,  Mr.  Noyes  hav- 
ing died  shortly  before  the  completion  of  the  report.  The  works  are 
now  embraced  in  six  volumes, — the  Code  of  Civil  Procedure  (in- 
cluding the  law  of  evidence),  the  Book  of  Forms,  the  Code  of  Crim- 
inal Procedure,  the  Political  Code,  the  Penal  Code,  and  the  Civil  Code. 

California  adopted  the  codes  of  New  York  in  1870,  and  they  have 
proved  a  great  success  in  that  State.  The  civil  code  was  adopted  at 
the  session  of  tlie  Legislature  in  New  York  in  1879,  but  by  accident 
the  governor  failed  to  sign  it.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  the  Legislature  of  that  State  will  reenact  the  bill  to  adopt  the 
civil  code  at  its  next  session,  and  that  the  governor  will  sign  it,  so 
as  to  make  it  the  law  of  that  State.  This  will  abolish  the  common 
law  and  equity  systems  of  discretion  and  fraud  in  that  great  State. 

The  New  York  and  the  California  codes  will  then  furnish  models 
for  all  the  other  States,  except  Louisiana,  which  adopted  the  civil  code 
in  1808,  based  on  the  same  principle. 

The  establishment  of  a  general  National  or  constitutional  code  in 
advance  of  the  States  that  have  not  yet  made  codes,  would  not  only 
greatly  facilitate  the  establishment  of  the  latter,  but  would  also  pre- 
vent much  of  the  existing  antagonism  between  the  United  States 
statutes  and  the  statutes  of  the  several  States.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  such  a  harmony  between  the  State  and  Federal  codes 
would  materially  decrease  vexatious  litigation  by  limiting  appeals 
and  writs  of  error  from  the  State  and  Federal  courts.  Under  the 
present  svstem  we  have  as  many  different  systems  of  law,  so  to 
speak,  as  there  are  States  ;  that  is,  some  thirty-eight  systems  of  law^ 
in  many  essential  points  differing  from  each  other.  Hence  the  New 
York  merchant  who  sells  to  customers  in  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kansas,, 
or  California  must  be,  in  cases  of  assignments,  familiar  with  all 
the  technical  details  of  the  assignment  laws  of  each  of  those  States ; 
and  if  he  sells  in  all  the  thirty-eight  States  of  our  Union,  he  must  famil- 
iarize himself  with  all  the  technicalities  of  the  assignment  laws  of 
those  thirty-eight  States.  This  is  exceedingly  vexatious,  especially  in 
a  country  where  intercommunication  between  citizens  is  so  extensive 
as  it  is  in  the  United  States.  As  a  consequence,  there  are  very  few 
citizens  of  one  State  now  who  know  what  the  laws  of  another  State 
are ;  and  if  they  immigrate  into  it,  or  have  business  to  transact  in  it, 


56  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

they  are  forced  to  undergo  the  tedious  and  almost  impossible  task  of 
studying  its  statutes.  Many  acts  and  omissions  constitute  criminal 
offences  in  one  State  which  are  innocent  in  other  States ;  and  unless 
the  immigrant  or  traveller  chances  to  be  aware  of  this,  he  may  subject 
himself  to  arrest  and  criminal  punishment  for  doing  what  he,  in  his  own 
State,  had  always  been  led  to  consider  perfectly  harmless.  Even  pro- 
fessional lawyers  find  it  no  easy  task  to  master  the  different  law- 
systems  of  the  different  States  to  wliich  their  practice  may  extend  ; 
not  to  mention  the  expense  of  purchasing  the  books  that  pretend  to 
develop  those  systems. 

The  only  obstacle  in  the  way  of  this  most  essential  reform  seems 
to  be  that  clannish  State  pride  which  led  to  the  war  of  the  rebellion. 
But  if  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union  thinks  it  derogatory  to  its  dignity 
to  adopt  a  common  civil  and  criminal  code  with  all  the  other  States 
of  the  Union,  and  insists  upon  a  particular  and  specific  code,  why  . 
should  it  not  also  lay  claim  to  a  particular  and  specific  system  of 
medicine,  or  its  own  particular  and  specific  dress  and  dialect  of 
speech  ?  —  thereby  triumphantly  exhibiting  its  ' '  sovereignty. ' ' 

There  was  a  time  when  this  species  of  local  pride  really  did  run 
into  this  extravagance,  though  never  here  to  the  extent  it  did  in 
Europe.  Even  yet,  travellers  may  pass  from  one  county  to  another 
in  Great  Britain,  and  find  themselves  unable  to  make  their  wants  un- 
derstood, so  tenaciously  do  the  people  retain  their  dialect ;  and  to  this 
day  the  dress  of  a  German  peasant  is  a  sure  indication  of  the  district 
from  which  he  came. 

But  that  time  is  rapidly  passing  away  for  this  republic.  The  late 
civil  war  has  done  at  least  this  much  good :  that  it  has  quenched  the 
spirit  of  localism  and  roused  in  its  place  the  spirit  of  universal  hu- 
manity, which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  our  form  of  government.  One 
law  and  one  government,  bearing  equally  and  justly  upon  all  men,  is 
the  grand  task  which  the  United  States  of  America  is  destined  to 
achieve. 

There  need  be  no  apprehension  that  such  a  uniformity  of  the  State 
codes  will  result  in  centralization,  and  kill  off  the  local  independence 
of  our  several  States.  No  one  can  be  more  opposed  to  such  a  gen- 
eral centralization  than  I,  who  recognize  in  the  federative  form  of  our 
government  the  form  that  must  ultimately  unite  all  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  earth  into  what  Tennyson  grandly  and  prophetically 
calls  the  "Confederation  of  the  World."     Even  as  I  propose  that 


riUNCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  57 

all  the  States  of  our  Union  should  have  the  same  code  of  laws, — 
everywhere  uniform,  —  so  will  it  ultimately  become  necessary  that 
each  separate  nation  of  the  world-confederation  which  is  to  be, 
should  adopt  a  uniform  series  of  codes,  differing  only  in  minor  de- 
tails. And  will  any  one  say  that  if  all  the  States  in  the  world  had 
the  same  code  of  laws,  this  would  render  them  less  sovereign  than 
they  are  now?  It  would  remove  class  legislation,  lobbying,  bribery 
of  all  kinds,  and  diminish  the  expenses  of  legislation  and  judicial 
proceedings  at  least  three-fourths.  Let  us,  then,  have  one  code  of 
laws  for  our  federation,  and  one  code  of  laws  for  each  of  the  States 
that  compose  it.  This  will  give  Congress  and  our  State  legislatures 
opportunity  to  devote  themselves  to  their  appropriate  duties,  instead 
of  selling  out  the  public  lands  and  public  moneys  to  railways,  banks, 
and  other  corporations  for  bribes  paid  to  their  members  by  the  lobby, 
and  time  to  remove  that  confusion  of  the  laws  which  leads  people  to 
gi\^e  up  the  mere  attempt  to  read  and  learn  them  as  utterly  hopeless. 

III.  The  establishment  of  an  International  code,  finally,  in  the 
manner  indicated  by  me,  is,  of  course,  a  matter  which  the  American 
people  can  aid  only  by  encouraging  every  attempt  made  in  that  direc- 
tion. That  it  is  not  the  dream  of  an  impractical  idealist,  however, 
but  a  fact  shaping  itself  more  and  more  into  complete  form,  is  suf- 
ficiently demonstrated  every  day  by  the  changes  occurring  in  inter- 
national relations.  Within  the  last  few  years  some  ten  or  twelve 
international  congresses  have  been  held,  and  followed  by  very  grati- 
fying results.  One  of  these  especially,  the  postal  congress  held  at 
Berne,  Switzerland,  in  September  of  1872,  has  proved  in  the  most 
practical  manner,  that  the  settlement  of  all  international  financial 
transactions  can  be  brought  quite  as  readily  under  the  rule  of  law  as 
the  financial  dealings  between  individuals. 

Postal  affairs  were  in  former  times  conducted  by  nations,  quite 
as  much  as  all  other  affairs,  on  the  principle  that  each  nation  ought 
to  endeavor  to  make  the  most  out  of  all  other  nations,  without  regard 
to  law  or  justice.  It  was  force  which  ruled  ;  or,  at  times,  cunning, 
when  it  overreached  force.  The  postal  congress  of  Berne  was  the 
first  great  symptom  of  a  new  era  for  the  nations  of  the  world.  The 
United  States  of  America,  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  Egypt,  and 
the  Spanish  and  Portugese  possessions  in  Africa,  and  all  the  Brit- 
ish colonies  in  Australia  and  elsewhere,  were  by  that  congress 
united   into    a   general   postal  union,  which  is  wholly  governed,  so 


58  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

far  as  international  postage  is  concerned,  by  the  laws  established 
by  the  congress  and  ratified  by  the  different  nations  represented 
in  it.  Since  then,  by  providing  for  an  international  exchange  of 
postal  orders,  it  has  even  gone  so  far  as  to  lay  the  foundation 
of  an  international  system  of  banking ;  so  that  we  may  confidently 
expect,  that  within  a  comparatively  short  time  it  will  no  longer 
be  considered  impi^acticable  to. establish  also  international  clearing- 
houses for  the  financial  transactions  of  the  world,  the  first  sugges- 
tion of  which  was  made  by  me  in  the'  first  edition  of  "Liberty  and 
Law,"  and  which  was  then  decried  as  simply  a  visionary  project. 
Time  has  shown  that  nearly  all  proposed  reforms  suggested  by  me  in 
that  first  edition  have  become  recognized  as  indispensable  by  the 
foremost  nations  of  the  civilized  world. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  Berne  congress  I  consider  the  sanitary 
congress  held  at  Vienna,  and  attended  by  some  ten  nations  of 
Europe  and  Asia,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  sanitary  code  to 
prevent  most  effectively  the  spread  of  epidemics  from  one  country  to 
another.  This  congress  has  also  achieved  some  important  results, 
and  I  may  be  pardoned  here  for  recurring  to  my  proposed  general 
sanitary  code  for  the  United  States,  and  to  ask  those  of  my  critics 
who  have  attacked  it  so  severely,  why  that  proposition  should  be  held 
extravagant  here,  when  in  Europe  it  was  years  ago  found  necessary 
to  establish  an  international  sanitary  code? 

Apart  from  these  special  international  congresses,  three  have  been 
held  within  the  last  seven  j^ears  for  the  sole  purpose  of  establishing  a 
general  international  code  of  Public  Laws  for  all  the  States  of  the 
civilized  world. 

Such  an  international  code  may  therefoi-e  be  looked  upon  as  one 
of  the  great  blessings  that  a  very  near  future  must  bring  to  the 
human  race.  Its  adoption  will  necessarily  lead  to  the  organization  of 
an  international  judiciary,  to  decide  upon  all  questions  possibly  aris- 
ing under  that  code,  and  thus  prepare  for  the  general  abolition  of  war. 

The  first  step  in  the  advance  of  civilization  was  the  supersedure  of 
the  rule  of  force  by  that  of  law,  and  the  consequent  establishment  of 
legal  representative  governments.  The  second,  and  by  far  greater 
step  occurred  when  the  thirteen  original  States  of  this  Union,  instead 
of  remaining  separate  organizations,  and  settling  their  quarrels 
amongst  each  other  by  war,  founded  this  federative  republic,  and 
established  a  Supreme  Court  to  settle  all  those  quarrels  by  law. 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  59 

The  final  step  to  be  taken  for  the  perfection  of  human  govern- 
ments will  be  to  constitute  all  the  States  of  the  civilized  world  into  rep- 
resentative confederations,  subject  to  the  decisions  of  an  international 
court  in  cases  of  conflicting  claims,  under  a  code  administered  by 
those  international  judicial  tribunals,  and  thereby  to  banish  the  rule 
of  force  altogether,  and  substitute  the  rule  of  enlightened  reason 
and  justice  in  lieu  of  war,  with  all  its  horrors  and  brutalities. 


C  H  A  P  T  E  R     VI. 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

The  experience  of  the  past  ninety-one  years,  since  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  pi'oves  that  it  is  necessary  to  have  checks 
and  balances  against  every  form  of  abuse  by  the  officers  whom  the 
people  may  choose  as  their  servants.  On  February  14,  1870,  I  sub- 
mitted to  the  Judicary  Committee  and  the  Committee  on  the  Revision 
of  the  Federal  Statutes,  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  the  following 
act,  to  prevent  corrupt  action  or  judgments  on  the  part  of  the  Fed- 
eral justices  or  judges,  which  can  be  enlarged  so  as  to  reach  State 
judges,  State  and  Federal  legislators,  and  all  persons  holding  office 
under  State,  Municipal,  or  Federal  governments.  There  can  be 
no  valid  objection  to  such  acts  of  Congress,  or  similar  acts  of  the 
State  legislatures.  They  are  necessary  to  preserve  the  liberties  of  the 
people  :  —  . 

AN  ACT  to  mahitahi  and  preserve  the  purity  of  the  aclmiuistration  of  justice, 
of  equity,  and  of  hiw,'in  all  the  courts,  judicatories,  offices,  departments, 
and  tril)unals  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  to  prevent  and  punish 
all  fraud,  official  corruption,  l^ribery,  perjury,  subornation  of  perjury,  and 
all  official  and  judicial  tyranny  and  oppression,  to  the  end  that  a  pure, 
honest,  economical,  and  efficient  administration  of  the  judicial  depart- 
ment may  be  forever  secured,  for  the  common  benefit  and  protection  of 
the  people  of  tlie  United  States  of  America. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Bejyresentatives  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  in  Congress  assembled,  as  follows  :  — 
Section  1.  Any  justice,  chief  justice,  judge,  officer,  or  other  person -exer- 
cising any  judicial  function,  judgment,  or  discretion  in  any  court,  judicatory, 
office,  or  department  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  of  America,  who 
shall  knowingly  or  designedly   deliver,  enter  up,  or  assent  to  any  order. 


60  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

decision,  judgment,  or  opinion  in  any  case,  claim,  demand,  or  proceeding 
before  any  court,  judicial  officer,  executive  officer,  or  officer  of  the  United 
States  of  America;  in  which  judgment,  order,  decision,  opinion,  or  allow- 
ance there  shall  appear  any  false  statement  or  statements,  material  to  the 
honest  and  impartial  administration  of  justice,  of  equity,  or  of  law,  in  any 
such  particular  case,  claim,  demand,  or  proceeding;  or  which  judgment, 
order,  decision,  opinion,  or  allowance  is  knowingly  or  designedly  based  or 
founded,  or  pretended  to  be  based  or  founded,  upon  any  false  assumption, 
statement,  or  averment  of  facts  or  circumstaijijes,  material  to  the  just,  legal, 
or  equitable  decision  of  any  such  case,  proceeding,  claim,  demand,  or  allow- 
ance, or  material  to  the  impartial  administration  of  justice,  of  law,  of  equity, 
or  of  official  action,  prerogative,  or 'power;  then,  in  every  such  case,  each 
justice,  chief  justice,  judge,  judicial  officer,  executive  officer,  or  officer  of  any 
description,  holding  or  exercising  any  function  or  power,  judicial,  executive, 
or  otherwise,  under  the  United  States,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  violation  of 
his  oath  of  office,  of  perjury,  and  of  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor  against 
the  United  States  of  America. 

Sect.  2.  Any  justice,  chief  justice,  judge,  or  other  officer  referred  to  in  the 
first  section  of  this  act,  who  shall  knowingly  or  designedly  violate  his  oath 
of  office,  or  designedly  refuse  to  do  manife^^t  justice  or  equity  in  any  case 
or  proceeding  referred  to  in  said  first  section  of  this  act,  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  perjury,  and  of  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor  against  the  United 
States  of  America. 

Sect.  3.  Any  justice,  chief  justice,  judge,  or  other  officer  referred  to  in  the 
first  section  of  this  act,  who  may  iguorantly  violate  the  provisions  of  the  first 
or  second  sections  of  this  act,  shall  not  be  subject  to  conviction  or  punish- 
ment for  such  violation  of  either  or  any  of  the  provisions  of  the  said  first  or 
second  sections  of  this  act,  unless  he  shall  adhere  to  a  judgment,  decision, 
order,  or  opinion  already  assented  to  or  delivered  by  him  in  any  case,  claim, 
demand,  or  proceeding,  containing  or  founded  upon  any  false  statement  or 
statements,  material  to  the  proper  or  just  decision  of,  or  judgment,  order,  or 
allowance  in  any  such  case  or  proceeding,  or  material  to  the  impartial  admin- 
istration of  justice,  of  law,  of  equity,  or  of  official,  prerogative  or  judgment 
in  any  such  particular  case  or  proceeding,  after  his  attention  has  been  directly 
called,  in  a  printed  address  served  upon  him  in  such  case,  to  the  particular 
false  statement  or  statements  contained  in  any  such  opinion,  judgment, 
order,  or  decision  in  any  such  motion,  case,  hearing,  trial,  or  proceeding 
referred  to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act;  in  which  case  any  such  justice, 
chief  justice,  judge,  or  officer  referred  to  in  said  first  section  of  this  act 
shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  perjury,  and  of  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor 
against  the  United  States  of  America. 

Sect.  4.  Any  justice,  chief  justice,  judge,  or  other  judicial  officer  or  person 
referred  to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  who  shall  assent  to,  or  announce  or 
deliver  any  order,  opinion,  or  decision  of  any  court  or  tribunal,  inflictiug 
any  tine  or  imprisonment,  or  disljarriug  or  disal)ling  any  attorney,  solicitor, 
proctor,  or  counsellor  of  any  Federal  court  for  a  contempt  of  such  court,  or 


PUINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDERATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  61 

other  alleged  offence  against  such  court,  or  the  justices  or  judges  thereof,  by 
reason  or  on  account  of  the  publication  or  service  of  the  said  printed  address 
referred  to  in  section  3  of  this  act,  or  the  service  or  delivery  of  the  same 
to  the  justices,  judges,  or  judicial  officer  or  other  person  constituting  any 
court  or  tribunal  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  official 
tyranny  and  oppression,  and  of  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor  against  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Sect.  5.  Any  justice,  chief  justice,  judge,  or  other  judicial  officer  referred 
to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  who  shall,  by  his  manner,  w^ords,  conduct, 
or  other  signs,  such  as  want  of  attention,  sleeping,  I'eading  papers,  books, 
letters,  cards  of  invitation  to  parties  or  dinners,  or  writing  letters,  while 
sitting  to  administer  justice  on  trials,  or  hearing  of  cases,  motions,  or  other 
proceedings,  in  any  Federal  court  or  tribunal ;  or  who  shall  express,  imply, 
or  show,  directly  or  indirectly,  any  passion,  prejudice,  partiality,  favor,  hos- 
tility, contempt,  scorn,  derision,  disdain,  or  encouragement  for  or  against 
either  party,  or  the  attorney,  counsel,  proctor,  solicitor,  or  advocate  of  either 
party  to  any  suit  or  proceeding  in  any  snch  tribunal  or  court,  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor  against  the  United  States  of  America. 

Sect.  6.  Hereafter  all  the  cases,  causes,  motions,  and  proceedings  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  of  the  Circuit  Courts  of  the  United  States  of  America 
shall  be  reported  under  the  supervision  of  the  attorney-general  of  the  United 
States,  who  shall  appoint,  by  and  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  all  the  repoi'ters  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  of  the  Circuit 
Courts  of  the  United  States;  and  the  entire  printed  statement,  brief,  and 
argument  for  the  party  advei'se  to  the  judgment  or  decision  made  or  rendered 
in  each  particular  case,  together  with  the  entire  printed  motions,  in  each 
case,  for  a  reform  of  the  judgment,  order,  or  decree,  or  i-ehearing  of  any  case, 
shall  be  printed  and  reported  with  the  opinion  of  the  court,  in  type  of  the 
same  size  as  that  used  for  the  reporting  of  the  opinion  in  such  case,  and  the 
said  attorney-general  shall  cause  the  head-notes  of  the  points  of  the  opinion, 
and  of  the  brief  and  argument  opposed  to  the  opinion,  to  be  made  and  affixed 
to  the  report  of  each  case,  and  form  a  part  of  the  report,  to  be  printed  as 
reports  of  decisions ;  and  no  Federal  court  shall  hereafter  appoint  a  reporter 
of  the  decisions  of  such  court,  or  of  the  opinions  of  the  justices  or  judges 
thereof,  but  all  such  reporters  shall  be  appointed  by  the  attorney-general,  by 
and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States ;  and  any 
reporter  so  appointed  who  shall  fail  or  neglect  to  perform  his  duties  under 
this  act  shall  be  liable  to  a  fine  of  five  thousand  dollars,  to  be  recovei'ed  in  a 
qui  tarn  action  in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  one-half  of  such  fine  to  be 
paid  over,  when  collected,  to  the  informer. 

Sect.  7.  Six  copies  of  the  record  and  maps,  and  of  the  briefs  and  argu- 
ments on  both  sides,  in  each  case  heard  or  pending  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  the  Court  of  Claims,  or  other  Federal  court  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  shall  be  deposited,  when  printed,  or  as  soon  thereafter  as 
practicable,  with  the  librarian  of  Congress ;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
reporter  of  each  court  to  make  such  deposit  within  a  reasonable  time  after 


62  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  printing  of  such  record,  and  briefs  and  arguments,  and  any  failure  or 
neglect  to  perform  such  duty  shall  subject  him  to  a  fine  of  one  thousand  dol- 
lars, to  be  recovered  in  a  qui  tarn  action,  as  aforesaid,  in  the  name  of  the 
United  States,  one-half  of  such  fine  to  go  to  the  informer. 

Sect.  S.  There  shall  be  allowed  as  a  salary  to  the  reporters  to  be  appointed 
under  this  act,  the  following  sums  per  annum:  To  the  reporter  of  tlie  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States, per  annum ;  to  the  reporter  of  the 

Court  of  Claims, per  annum;  to  the  reporter  of  the  Supreme  Court 

of  the  District  of  ColumlMa, per  annum;  to  the  reporter  of  the  Cir- 
cuit Court  of  the  United  States,  in  each  circuit, per  annum,  except 

in  the  circuits  embracing  New  York,  California,  and  Massachusetts,  who  shall 

receive  each per  annum. 

Sect.  9.  The  salary  of  the  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 

in  lieu  of  fees,  shall  be per  annum,  and  such  clerk  shall  have  his  own 

clerks  and  assistants,  and  pay  them  out  of  his  salary.  The  fees  of  the  said 
office  of  the  said  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  shall  be  paid  into  the  treasury 
of  the  United  States  semi-annually,  on  the  first  Monday  of  July  and  Jauuary 
of  each  year,  and  a  full  and  correct  account  of  all  fees,  perquisites,  and  gains 
of  said  clerk's  office  shall  be  rendered  on  said  days,  respectively,  to  the 
treasurer  of  the  United  States,  verified  by  the  oath  of  said  clerk;  and  any 
failure  by  said  clerk  to  perform  the  said  duties  required  by  this  section  shall 
incapacitate  said  clerk  from  holding  his  said  office,  or  any  other  office  of 
honor,  trust,  or  profit  under  the  United  States,  and  subject  him  to  a  fine  of 
not  less  than  one  thousand  dollars  nor  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars,  to  be 
recovered  in  a  qui  tain  action  in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  one-half  of 
which  shall  go  to  the  informer. 

Sect.  10.  Any  person  who  shall  bribe  or  attempt  to  bribe,  or  to  corruptly 
influence  or  attempt  to  influence,  by  any  means  whatsoever,  any  justice, 
chief  justice,  judge,  or  judicial  officer,  or  other  person  referred  to  in  the  first 
section  of  this  act,  to  decide  any  case,  motion,  or  proceeding  in  any  court  of 
the  United  States,  or  other  tribunal  or  judicatory  of  the  United  States,  in 
favor  of  either  party  to  such  case,  motion,  or  proceeding,  shall,  on  conviction 
thereof,  be  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  a  period  not  less  than  ten  years ; 
and  any  judge,  justice,  chief  justice,  or  other  officer  or  person  referred  to  in 
the  first  two  sections  of  this  act,  who  shall  accept  any  such  bribe,  or  submit 
to  any  such  influence,  shall,  on  conviction  thereof,  be  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment for  life. 

Sect.  11.  Any  judge,  justice,  chief  justice,  judicial  officer,  or  other  person 
referred  to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  wlio  shall  violate  the  provisions  of 
the  first,  second,  or  third  sections  of  this  act,  shall,  on  conviction  thereof,  be 
Sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  a  period  not  less  than  five  years  nor  more 
than  ten  years.  Any  judge,  justice,  chief  justice,  or  other  judicial  oflScer  or 
person  referred  to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  who  shall  violate  the  fourth 
or  fifth  sections  of  this  act,  shall  be  subject,  on  conviction  thereof,  to  impris- 
onment in  the  penitentiary  not  less  than  six  months  nor  more  than  five  years ; 
and  in  case  of  any  violation  of  the  first,  second,  third,  fourth,  or  fifth  sections 


PRINCIPLES    OF    A    FEDEKATIVE    GOVERNMENT.  63 

of  this  act,  the  said  party  or  parties,  referred  to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act, 
jjcuilty  thereof,  or  of  either  of  them,  shall,  in  addition  to  the  penalties  and 
punishment  hereinbefore  affixed  to  such  crimes,  be  subject  to  impeachment 
before  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
Tliis  act  to  take  effect  and  be  in  force  from  and  after  its  passage. 

Similar  statutes  might  also  be  passed  to  punish  executive  officers, 
and  members  of  Congress  and  of  the  State  legislatures,  who  abuse 
their  power  in  the  same  way. 


64  LllJEitTY    AND    LAW. 


PUBLIC   hygie:n^e. 


CHAPTER    I. 

DEFINITION    OF   PUBLIC    HYGIENE. 

Public  b^'giene,  In-  its  very  name,  excludes  the  treatment  of 
hygiene  as  each  private  individual  may  choose  to  apply  it  to  himself 
and  family.  It  therefore  does  not  concern  itself  with  the  special 
diet  of  persons,  nor  with  their  idiosyncracies  in  the  choice  of  medi- 
cines, but  relates  only  to  those  subjects  of  health  which  are  public, 
and  affect  all  men  equally.  Tliis,  indeed,  while  it  results  from  a 
mere  sense  of  general  justice,  has  its  own  particular  significance  in 
relation  to  the  republican  form  of  government  of  the  United  States, 
which,  while  it  assumes  to  provide  for  the  protection  of  the  welfare 
of  all,  does  not  allow  governmental  interference  with  the  rights  of  the 
individual. 

Keeping  this  in  view,  and  considering  the  government  in  its  relation 
to  the  universal  requirements  of  the  human  body,  public  hygiene  can 
have  onl3'  one  subject  for  its  application  under  a  system  of  Liberty 
and  Law.  This  is  to  furnish  to  every  individual  the  needs  which  his 
body  requires  for  a  healthy  life  in  healthy  purity.  In  other  w^ords, 
since  man  has  onlj-  two  such  universal  needs,  air  and  food,  govern- 
ment is  in  duty  bound  to  guarantee  to  every  citizen  the  air  he 
breathes  and  the  food  he  eats  or  di'inks  in  the  utmost  attainable 
purity.  In  regard  to  all  other  things  which  individual  men  may 
think  necessary  for  their  health,  — such  as  drugs,  — government  can 
exercise  only  a  negative  duty,  to  wit,  supei'vision.  Government  may 
supervise  the  sale  of  drugs,  liquors,  etc.,  and  see  to  it  that  the 
purchaser  obtains  unadulterated  what  he  desires  to  purchase,  but  it 
cannot  prohibit  an  individual  from  eating  or  drinking  what  he  chooses. 

Governmental  regulation  of  i)ublic  hygiene  treats,  therefore,  only 
of  that  one  universal  necessity  of  all  men, — food;   but  as  this  food 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  65 

is,  in  common  language,  always  separated  into  two  classes,  —  the  food 
which  we  partake  through  our  lungs  and  the  food  which  we  partake 
through  our  stomachs,  —  we  also  shall  keep  up  these  distinctions,  and 
treat  separately  of  the  necessity  on  the  part  of  government  to  pro- 
vide pure  air  and  pure  food  (in  the  limited  sense  of  the  word)  for 
its  citizens. 

I  shall  speak  of  pure  air  first,  because  it  is  the  more  important 
branch  of  public  hygiene,  seeing  that  we  consume  it  in  quantities 
infinitely  beyond  our  consumption  of  food,  and  also  because  it  more 
deserves  governmental  supervision,  and  indeed  cannot  be  obtained 
without  such  supervision.  Man's  individual  instinct,  acting  through 
nausea,  is  quite  apt  to  tell  him  all  he  need  know  of  the  purity  of 
food,  but  that  instinct  is  not  sharpened  enough  to  detect  impurity  of 
the  air.  Again,  my  neighbor  cannot  interfere  with  the  purity  of  my 
food,  but  he  ma}-,  in  hundreds  of  ways,  affect  the  purity  of  the  air 
in  my  house.  Indeed,  every  inhabitant  of  a  town  or  city  is  in  this 
respect  dependent  upon  all  his  fellow-inhabitants,  and  only  law  can 
give  him  the  necessary  security. 

I  shall  introduce  the  subject  by  one  of  its  essential,  but  as  yet 
little  developed  branches,  —  the  branch  which  refers  to  weather  and 
climate. 


CHAPTER    II. 

WEATHER   AND    CLIMATE. 

In  considering  the  subject  of  pure-air  hygiene,  in  its  universality, 
we  find  that  we  must  include  within  its  scope  not  only  the  atmosphere 
in  our  buildings  and  cities,  but  the  whole  atmosphere  that  surrounds 
the  earth, —  all  its  movements  of  storms,  hurricanes,  and  electric  cur- 
rents, and  even  the  magnetic  currents  that  pass  through  the  earth,  — 
as  one  of  the  main  causes  of  the  atmospheric  changes. 

In  other  words,  we  must  develop  the  science  of  meteorology,  not 
merely  for  its  own  sake,  and  as  a  science  by  itself,  but  also  as  part  of 
the  science  of  ventilation  and  hygiene  ;  so  that  the  whole  of  this 
globe  of  ours  may,  in  course  of  time,  be  made  inhabitable  and 
healthy.     Life  must  be  made  beautiful  and  healthy  over  the  whole 

5 


6()  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

earlh.  Naturally,  our  own  immediate  interest  is  centred  in  the 
United  States  and  its  climate ;  but  the  earth  is  so  constituted,  that 
not  a  single  part  of  it  can  attain  perfect  development  unless  all  other 
parts  are  equally  developed.  This  is  a  provision  of  nature  whereby 
men  are  compelled  to  abandon  their  individuality  and  separately 
national  clannishness,  and  to  work  together  as  a  unity  for  one  common 
<jbject.  It  is  a  direct  suggestion  of  the  necessity  for  promoting  the 
homogeneity  of  our  race. 

Hence,  grand  as  the  direct  results  of  our  own  weather  signal-service 
have  been  already  in  the  ten  3^ears  of  its  existence,  its  greatest 
achievement  is,  unquestionably,  that  it  has  clearly  shown  its  inade- 
quacy unless  it  is  made  an  integral  part  of  a  world  weather-system. 
Tlie  weather  of  the  United  States  cannot  be  calculated  beforehand 
unless  we  know  the  weather  phenomena  of  the  equatorial  as  well  as 
those  of  the  arctic  regions,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  rest  of  the  earth. 

But  with  the  improvement  of  the  cUmate  in  the  now  uncivilized 
parts  of  the  earth  we  shall  also  witness,  as  experience  has  abundantly 
shown,  a  gradual  dawn  of  culture  in  those  now  benighted  regions  ;  and 
in  course  of  time  the  educated  man  of  the  European  and  American 
continents  will  no  longer  need  to  blush  for  his  brethren  of  the  less 
favored  regions  of  the  earth,  to  whom  civilization  has  not  yet  fully 
revealed  itself. 

And  now  let  us  turn  to  our  more  immediately  practical  branch  of 
pure  air,  regardless  of  the  electric,  magnetic,  and  planetary  influences 
that  may  affect  it,  its  relation  to  the  human  body  as  the  main  element 
of  its  food,  and  therefore  of  human  life  itself. 


CHAPTER    III. 

PURE   AIR. 


The  human  body,  being  the  material  representative  of  the  human 
mind,  should,  like  it.  irradiate  health  and  cleanliness,  and  in  propor- 
tion as  it  does  not  do  so  it  contributes  to  moral  disease  and  impurity. 
There  is  no  more  effective  propagator  of  immorality  than  the  filth  of 
crowded  districts  in  cities ;  it  infects  the  body  with  all  the  physical 


PUBLIC    HYGIF7NE.  67 

diseases  that  stir  up  vicious  and  low  appetites  and  passions.  The 
law  should  protect  every  citizen  against  these  injurious  influences, 
and  as  they  operate  chiefly  through  the  air,  it  is  the  duty  of  a  State 
organization  to  secure  to  every  citizen  the  needful  amount  of  pure 
air  wherever  the  co-residence  of  others  tends  to  impair  its  natural 
purity. 

Pure  air  is,  indeed,  the  foremost  necessity  of  human  life.  Not 
only  does  man  need  it  as  food,  — and  as  food  he  consumes  in  quan- 
tity six  thousand  times  more  of  air  than  of  all  other  food,  — but  also 
to  preserve  the  normal  temperature  of  the  body,  and  carry  off  its 
exhalations.^  It  is  only  of  late  years  that  the  facts  connected  with 
the  consumption  of  air  by  the  human  body  have  been  mathematically 
ascertained  and  corroborated  by  experiments,  particularly  bj^  Dr. 
von  Pettenkoffer,  the  most  eminent  sanitary  physician  of  Germany ; 
as,  indeed,  the  whole  science  of  public  hygiene  is  but  a  few  years 
old.  The  results  ascertained  disclose  enormous  figures.  Whereas 
but  thirty  years  ago,  for  instance,  six  hundred  cubic  feet  of  fresh  air 
per  hour  were  considered  sufficient  for  each  patient  in  a  hospital,  over 
two  thousand  cubic  feet  per  hour  have  now  been  ascertained  to  be 
necessary ;  an  amount  which  —  in  such  large  buildings  as  hospitals  nec- 
essarily are,  and  still  more  in  crowded  cities  —  only  the  most  efficient 
system  of  artificial  mechanical  ventilation  can  secure.  Not  to  provide 
for  this  constant  flow  of  pure  air  throughout  every  house,  street,  and 
alley  is  to  spread  disease  in  every  form  from  one  body  to  another, 
and,  moreover,  to  steep  the  whole  population  of  a  city  into  a  contin- 
uous intoxication,  the  result  of  inhaling  the  poisonous  carbonic  acid 
gas  infecting  the  air. 

From  numerous  experiments,  made  with  men  of  different  stature, 
Dr.  Menzie  found  that,  in  a  normal  condition,  from  fourteen  to  eigh- 
teen respirations  are  made  every  minute;  others  place  the  number  at 
from  thirteen  to  twenty-two.     The  quantity  of   air  drawn  into  the 


1  The  quantity  of  ah"  mhaled  and  exhaled  by  an  adult  in  twenty-four  hours 
amounts,  on  an  a\'crage,  to  about  360  cubic  feet,  or  2,000  gallons.  AVhat  we 
take  in  and  give  out  during  twenty-four  hours  in  the  shape  of  solid  and  liquid 
food  occupies,  on  an  average,  the  space  of  5^  pints,  which  i>  eriual  to  ^J^^  of 
the  volume  of  the  air  passing  through  our  lungs.  Those  daily  2,000  gallons 
of  air,  with  tlieir  weiglit  of  twenty-five  pounds  avoirdupois,  give  us  for  one 
year  730,000  gallons  of  air  consumed  by  an  adult  through  the  lungs  alone. 


68  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

lungs  at  each  inspiration  varied  from  40.7  to  46.7  cubic  inches,  so 
that  Menzie  considers  720  cubic  inches  about  tlie  average  quantity 
inhaled  every  minute  by  a  healthy  man,  and  500  that  inhaled  by  a 
health}'  woman. 

Now,  let  it  be  considered,  that  the  fresh  air,  before  it  is  taken  into 
the  lungs,  is  composed  of  23.2  per  cent  of  oxygen,  75.5  per  cent  of 
hydrogen,  and  about  1^  per  cent  of  carbonic  acid,  besides  a  small, 
variable  quantity  of  vapor  of  water;  and  that  when  it  passes  out 
j^train,  —  some  ten  or  twelve  seconds  after  having  been  inhaled,  — it 
contains  a  larger  quantity  of  vapor,  the  same  quantity  of  nitrogen^ 
from  eight  to  nine  per  cent  of  carbonic  acid,  and  only  from  eleven  to 
twelve  per  cent  of  oxygen.  It  thus  appears  that  nearl}'  one-half  of 
the  ox^'gen  inhaled,  in  its  passage  through  the  lungs  has  been 
changed  into  carbonic  acid,  or  from  the  life-giving  element  of  the  air 
into  deadly  poison.  But  when  atmospheric  air  contains  but  3.5  per  cent 
of  carbonic  acid  gas  it  is  unfit  to  support  animal  life.  Now,  the  air 
exhaled  from  the  lungs  contains  2.4  times  that  amount  of  the  gas. 
This  unquestionable  scientific  fact  ought  to  convince,  of  itself,  every 
person  of  the  imminent  danger  of  inhaling  foul  air,  and  of  the  abso- 
lute need  of  a  complete  system  of  private  and  public  ventilation. 

But  there  is  also  an  historical  fact  which  may  be  cited  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  will  not  accept  facts  of  science.  It  is  the  most 
noted  example  of  the  deathly  character  of  impure  air,  and  is  known 
all  over  the  world  as  the  horror  of  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  It 
occurred  in  the  year  1756,  during  the  rebellion  of  the  East  Indians 
against  British  rule,  which  was  finall}'  suppressed  by  Lord  Clive. 

Calcutta,  one  of  the  British  strongholds,  had  been  compelled  to 
surrender  to  the  native  rebel  troops  on  the  19th  of  June,  1756,  and 
its  small  garrison  of  514  men,  of  whom  only  174  were  Europeans, 
had  been  taken  prisoners.  And  this  is  what  followed :  One  hundred 
^nd  forty-six  of  these  prisoners  were  driven  into  one  of  the  dungeons 
of  the  garrison  known  as  the  Black  Hole,  a  room  of  only  twenty 
feet  square,  or  1,600  cubic  feet,  and  with  only  two  small  windows, 
and  those  obstructed  by  a  veranda.  It  was  the  hottest  season  of  the 
year,  and  the  night  uncommonl}'^  sultr}'  even  at  this  season.  The  ex- 
cessive pressure  of  their  bodies  against  one  another,  and  the  intol- 
erable heat  which  prevailed  as  soon  as  the  door  was  shut,  convinced 
the  prisoners  that  it  was  impossible  to  live  through  the  night  in  this 
horrible  confinement,  and  violent  attempts  were  immediately  made  to 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  69 

force  the  door,  but  without  effect,  for  it  opened  inwards,  on  which 
many  began  to  give  loose  to  rage.  Mr.  Holwell,  who  placed  himself 
at  one  of  the  windows,  exhorted  tliem  to  remain  composed  both 
in  body  and  mind,  as  the  only  means  of  surviving  the  niglit ;  and  his 
remonstrances  produced  a  short  interval  of  quiet,  during  wliich  lie 
appHed  to  an  old  Jemantdar,  who  bore  some  marks  of  humanity 
about  him,  promising  to  give  him  1,000  rupees  in  the  morning  if  he 
would  separate  the  prisoners  into  two  chambers.  The  old  man  went 
to  try,  but,  returning  in  a  few  minutes,  said  it  was  impossible,  when 
Mr.  Holwell  offered  him  a  larger  sum,  on  which  he  retired  once 
more,  and  returned  with  the  fatal  sentence  that  no  relief  could  be 
expected,  because  "  </ie  nabob  was  asleep,  and  no  one  dared  to  wake 
hiiji."  In  the  meantime  every  minute  had  increased  their  sufferings. 
The  first  effect  of  their  confinement  was  a  continued  sweat,  which 
soon  produced  intolerable  thirst,  succeeded  by  excruciating  pains  in 
the  chest,  with  difficulty  of  breathing,  little  short  of  suffocation. 
Various  means  were  tried  to  obtain  more  room  and  air.  Every  one 
stripped  off  his  clothes,  every  hat  was  put  in  motion ;  and  these 
methods  affording  no  relief,  it  was  proposed  that  they  all  should  sit 
down  on  their  hams  at  the  same  time,  and  after  remaining  a  litile 
■while  in  this  position,  rise  all  together.  This  fatal  expedient  was 
thrice  repeated  before  they  had  been  confined  an  hour,  and  every 
time  several,  unable  to  raise  themselves  up  again,  fell,  and  were 
trampled  to  death  by  their  companions.  Attempts  were  again  made 
to  force  the  door,  which,  failing  as  before,  redoubled  their  rage ;  but 
the  thirst  increasing,  nothing  but  "water!  water!"  was  cried  for. 
The  good  Jemantdar  immediately  ordered  some  skins  of  water  to  be 
brought  to  the  windows ;  but,  instead  of  relief,  his  benevolence  be- 
came a  more  dreadful  cause  of  destruction,  for  the  sight  of  the  water 
threw  every  one  into  such  excessive  agitations  and  ravings,  that,  un- 
able to  be  regularly  served,  each  man  battled  with  the  utmost  ferocity 
against  those  who  were  likely  to  get  before  him ;  and  in  these  con- 
flicts many  were  either  beaten  to  death  by  the  efforts  of  others,  or 
suffocated.  This  scene,  instead  of  exciting  compassion  in  the  guard 
without,  only  awakened  their  mirth ;  and  they  held  up  lights  to  the 
bars  in  order  to  have  the  diabolic  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  deplor- 
able contention  of  the  sufferers  within,  who,  finding  it  impossible  to 
get  any  water  whilst  it  was  thus  furiously  disputed,  at  length  suffered 
those  who  were  nearest  the  windows  to  convey  it  in  their  hats  to  those 


70  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

behind  thera.  It  proved  no  relief  either  to  their  thirst  or  other  Buf- 
ferings, for  the  fever  increased  every  moment  with  the  increasing 
impurity  of  the  air  of  the  dungeon,  which  had  been  so  often  respired, 
and  was  saturated  with  the  hot  and  deleterious  effluvia  of  putrefying 
bodies,  of  which  the  stench  was  little  less  than  mortal. 

Before  midnight,  all  who  were  alive  and  had  not  partaken  of  the  air 
of  the  windows  were  in  lethargic  stupefaction  or  raving  with  delirium. 
Every  kind  of  invective  and  abuse  was  uttered,  in  hope  of  provoking 
the  guard  to  put  an  end  to  their  miseries  by  firing  into  the  dungeon  ; 
and  whilst  some  were  blaspheming  their  Creator  with  frantic  cries  of 
torment  and  despair,  heaven  was  implored  by  others  with  wild  and 
incoherent  praj-ers,  until  the  weaker,  exhausted  by  these  agitations, 
at  length  lay  down  quietly  and  expired  on  the  bodies  of  their  dead 
and  agonizing  friends.  Those  who  still  survived  in  the  inward  part 
of  the  dungeon,  finding  that  the  water  had  afforded  them  no  relief, 
made  a  last  effort  to  obtain  air,  by  endeavoring  to  scramble  over  the 
heads  of  those  who  stood  between  them  and  the  windows,  where  the 
utmost  strength  of  every  one  was  employed  for  two  hours,  either  in 
maintaining  his  own  ground  or  endeavoring  to  get  that  of  which  others 
were  in  possession.  All  regards  of  compassion  and  affection  were 
lost,  and  no  one  would  recede  or  give  way  for  the  relief  of  another. 
Faintness  sometimes  gave  short  pauses  of  quiet,  but  the  first  motion 
of  any  one  renewed  the  struggle  through  all,  under  which  ever  and 
anon  some  one  sunk  to  rise  no  more.  At  two  o'clock  a.  m.  not  more 
than  fifty  remained  alive ;  but  even  this  number  was  too  many  to 
partake  of  the  saving  air,  the  contest  for  which  and  life  continued 
until  the  morning  began  to  break,  and  with  the  hope  of  relief  gave 
the  survivors  a  view  of  the  dead.  The  survivors  then  at  the  Avindow, 
seeing  that  their  entreaties  could  not  prevail  on  the  guard  to  open 
the  door,  it  occurred  to  Mr.  Cook,  the  secretary  to  the  council,  that 
Mr.  Holwell,  if  alive,  might  have  more  influence  to  obtain  their  re- 
lief;  and  two  of  the  company  undertaking  the  search,  discovered 
him,  having  still  some  signs  of  life.  But  when  they  brought  him  near 
the  window,  every  one  refused  to  quit  his  place  excepting  Capt.  Mills, 
who,  with  rare  generosity,  offered  to  resign  his,  on  which  the  rest 
hkewise  agreed  to  make  room.  He  had  scarely  begun  to  recover  his 
senses,  before  an  officer,  sent  by  the  nabob,  came  and  inquired  if  the 
English  chief  survived ;  and  soon  after  the  same  man  returned  with 
an  order  to  open  the  prison.     The  dead  were  so  thronged,  and  the 


rUBLIC    HYGIENE.  71 

survivors  had  so  little  streiigLli  remaiuing,  that  they  were  employed 
for  nearly  half  an  hour  in  removing  the  bodies  which  lay  against  the 
door,  before  they  could  clear  a  passage  to  get  out  one  by  one  ;  when, 
of  one  hundred  (ind  fortij-slx  who  went  in,  no  more  than  twenty -tliree 
came  out  alive,  the  ghastliest  forms  that  ever  were  seen  on  the  earth ! 
The  nabob's  troops  beheld  them,  and  the  havoc  of  death  from  which 
the}-  had  escaped,  with  perfect  indifference,  but  did  not  prevent  them 
from  removing  to  a  distance,  after  having  obliged  them  to  clear  the 
dungeon  and  dig  a  ditch  on  the  outside  of  the  fort,  into  which  all 
the  dead  bodies  were  promiscuously  thrown. 

This  horrible  tale,  told  b}'^  Mr.  Holwell  himself,  does  it  not  find  a 
counterpai't  in  the  inhumanity  which  leads  us  to  shut  up  our  poor  in 
hovels  and  our  prisoners  in  cells,  that  are  just  such  Calcutta  holes; 
and,  what  is  worst  of  all,  to  exclude  as  much  as  possible  every  breath 
of  God's  pure  air  from  our  infant  children?  It  may  safely  be  said 
that  every  nursery  in  the  land  is  a  miniature  Black  Hole,  as  the  tables 
of  infant  mortality  attest  but  too  clearly.  We  take  away  from  those 
children  light  and  air,  the  two  essential  elements  of  life,  and  yet  we 
wonder  that  they  die  at  such  a  frightful  rate,  —  about  five  to  one 
adult.  We  carefully  curtain  thickly  every  window  of  their  rooms,  — 
cells  they  should  be  called,  — which  is  about  as  vile  a  piece  of  inhu- 
manity as  was  the  action  of  the  British  government  when  it  imposed 
a  window-tax,  thereby  inducing  the  poor  to  exclude  light  and  air 
from  their  rooms,  and  slowly  killing  themselves  in  order  to  escape  a 
ridiculous  taxation.  To  show  that  I  do  not  exaggerate  the  mortality 
of  children  as  compared  with  that  of  adults,  I  here  append  a  table  of 
the  percentage  of  mortaUty  of  children  under  five  years.  It  opens  a 
dark  picture.  It  gives  the  figures  for  some  of  our  larger  cities,  and 
for  the  whole  of  the  United  States:  — 


New  York 50.45 

Philadelphia  ....'..  45.54 

St.  Louis 53.00 

Chicago 51.24 

Cincinnati 4G.68 

Baltimore 45.54 


Washington 4fi.44 

Milwaukee 61.00 

Providence 3;i.7(> 

Massachusetts 37.15 

Rhode  Island 34.1(> 

United  States 41.28 


With  all  these  facts  in  view,  it  seems  strange  that  so  many  people 
should  still  entertain  a  really  positive  hostility  to  pure  air.  But  the 
explanation  lies  here :  Every  species  of  intoxication  imparts  a  fond- 
ness for  the  condition,  —  a  desire  to  recur  to  the  sensations  excited 


72  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

l)y  it ;  and  the  intoxication  pioduced  by  foul  air  is  not  without  this 
dangerous  element,  which,  indeed,  alone  could  have  made  it  possible 
that  men  should  shut  out  from  their  dwelling-places  God's  pure  air, 
as  if  it  were  their  worst  enera}^  and  yield  themselves  and  their  chil- 
dren to  those  sensations  of  drowsiness  and  stupor  which  air  impreg- 
nated with  carbonic  acid  gas  invariably  excites.     Legislation  on  this 
subject  will  therefore  meet  a  deep-rooted  opposition  from  the  fre- 
quenters of  tenement-houses,  dens,  cellars,  etc.  ;  but  in  proportion  as 
this  opposition  has  its  origin  in  that  same  foul  air,  the  law  should  pro- 
tect the  upgrowing  generation  from  similar  results,  and  make  possible 
the  raising  of  a  new  generation  of  children  whose  bodies  shall  be  free 
from  the  fearful  taint.     The  terrible  epidemics  from  which  the  human 
race  suffers  periodically  have  also  their  chief  carrier  and  nourisher  in 
foul  air.     That  foul  air  is  the  chief  agent  in  spreading  contagion  Jipd 
epidemics  has  been  now  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt ;  and  the  fact 
which  has  so  often  excited  wonder,  that  some  epidemics  seem  to  gather 
additional  intensity  in  winter  time,  is  a  striking  proof  of  it.     The 
wonder  was  excited  by  a  notion  that  the  cold  air  of  winter  must  be 
purer  than  the  warmer  air  of  summer,  and  produce  of  itself  better 
ventilation  in  a  house.     But  the  reverse  is  the  case.     Unless  a  room 
has  a  good  fire  in  an  open  chimney  in  winter  time  the  ventilation  is 
much  less  than  in  summer  time,  when  windows  and  doors  are  thrown 
open,  and  hence  in  winter  the  air  is  more  impure  in  unheated  rooms. 
]^ow,  the  miserable  dwellings  of  the  poor  are  but  too  often  without 
fire ;  at  night-time,  particularly,  few  of  them  can  afford  to  keep  up  a 
fire.     Thus  the  dread  agent  of  contagion  and  pestilence  gains  addi- 
tional strength  from  misery  and  poverty ;  and  it  is  for  this  reason 
that  fuel  should  be  provided  for  the  poor  in  winter  time,  if  for  no 
other,  as  one  of  the  most  effective  means  to  ventilate  their  wretched 
dwellings,  as  they  now  exist  under  our  present  defective  system  of 
house-building,  especially  in  cities  containing  crowded  populations. 

This  necessity  of  providing  warmth  in  buildings  as  an  indispensable 
element  for  obtaining  purity  of  air  is  a  matter  so  very  little  under- 
stood that  it  may  be  well  to  explain  it  somewhat  further,  especially  as 
one  of  the  main  objections  to  ventilation  and  the  admission  of  pure 
air  into  buildings  has  been  the  notion  that  this  necessarily  implies 
unhealthy  draughts  and  uncomfortable  cold.  Drs.  Drysdale  and 
Hayward,  in  their  admirable  work  on  Health  and  Comfort  in  House- 
Building  (London,  48  Charing  Cross,  1872),  say:  — 


PUHI.IC    HYGIENE.  73 

"To  procure  a  sufficient  supply  of  fresh  air  in  our  houses  may,  at 
first  sight,  appear  a  very  simple  and  easy  matter ;  we  have  apparently 
only  to  make  as  large  an  opening  as  is  necessary  for  the  admission  of 
the  outer  air,  and  it  will  come  in.  This  is,  however,  a  misconception  ; 
for  the  outer  air  will  not  come  in  unless  at  the  same  time  the  inner 
air  goes  out,  and  these  two  currents  will  not  readily  take  place 
through  one  aperture ;  there  must  therefore  be  two  openings,  —  an 
inlet  and  an  outlet. 

"  We  need  not  insist  on  the  above  fact,  because  it  is  recognized  by 
most  persons  of  experience  in  the  art  of  ventilation,  and  they  gen- 
erally provide  two  apertures.  But  here  they  stop,  as  though  the 
making  of  a  sufficiently  capacious  inlet  and  outlet  were  all  that  is 
necessary. 

"But  this  is  not  enough;  and  it  does  not,  will  not,  and  cannot 
answer  for  house-ventilation  in  this  country,  because  there  is  at 
least  one  circumstance  that  forms  a  fatal  objection  to  all  these 
schemes,  and  that  is  that  nearly  always  the  outer  air  is  cold  air,  and 
cold  air  cannot  with  safety  be  admitted  into  our  rooms  at  all  times  ; 
nor  indeed  will  it  be,  for  in  cold  weather  the  inmates  will  stop  up  the 
holes  in  order  to  keep  it  out." 

Tlie  British  government  commissioners  who  had  the  investigation 
of  this  matter  of  ventilation,  especially  in  the  houses  of  the  poor, 
under  their  charge,  sum  up,  as  the  result  of  their  explorations,  in  these 
words :  — 

"The  science  or  art  of  ventilation  of  buildings  has  never  been 
reduced  to  system.  Opeiiings  are  made  from  the  open  air  outside 
a  building,  below  for  the  admission  of  fresh  air,  and  above  for  the 
escape  of  the  foul,  in  various  fanciful  ways ;  but  the  cold  draughts 
are  so  inconvenient  that  every  endeavor  is  practised  to  obstruct  the 
inlet."  1 

And  a  recent  writer,  speaking  on  this  subject,  says:  "The  art  of 
warming  or  ventilating  a  building  is  not  a  difficult  one ;  but  the  art 
of  warming  and  ventilating  is  extremely  difficult,  and  cannot  be  said 
to  have  attained  to  anything  like  perfection."  ^ 

The  air,  therefore,  must  be  warmed  before  it  is  admitted.     But 


1  Government  Blue-Book  on  Warming  and  Ventilation  of  Dwellhigs,  p.  126. 
'^  Cyclopa?cUa  of  Useful  Arts,  published  1868.     Art:  "Wanning  and  Venti- 
lation." 


74  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  entrance  of  cold  air  through  these  inlets  is  not  the  only  evil 
connected  with  this  crude  method  of  ventilation,  for  it  will  also  fre- 
quently come  in  through  the  openings  intended  for  outlets. 

"At  no  examination  of  these,"  say  the  British  commissioners 
again,  "was  it  found  that  the  air  was  escaping  through  them.  On 
the  contrar}"^,  flame  was  bent  inwards,  and  fumes  of  partially  con- 
sumed substances  were  driven  into  the  room."  ^ 

In  reference  to  the  objections  made  against  any  kind  of  ventilation 
unless  the  admitted  fresh  air  has  previously  been  warmed,  Drs. 
Drysdale  and  Hay  ward  say :  — 

"When  the  air  admitted  into  the  rooms  is  perceptibly  cold,  every 
effort  is  made  to  arrest  its  entrance  by  stopping  up  all  modes  of 
ingress,  even  those  of  the  best-contrived  ventilating  systems ;  these 
are  thus  rendered  nugatory,  and  the  whole  art  of  ventilation  is 
decried  as  a  nuisance,  the  assurances  of  Messrs.  Potts,  Edwaixls, 
Watson,  etc.,  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  anything  like  success  be  attained  in  keeping  out  the  draughts  by 
close-fitting  doors  and  windows,  thick  carpets  and  mats,  or  by  listing, 
sand-bags,  etc.,  the  room  becomes  close  and  oppressive;  and  if 
several  persons  be  in  it,  as  at  a  dinner  or  supper  party,  the  want  of 
fresh  air  cannot  be  borne,  and  it  soon  compels  the  opening  of  the 
door  or  window,  thus  subjecting  some  one  to  a  cold  draught,  and  the 
risk  of  rheumatism,  sore  throat,  bronchitis,  or  neuralgia.  If  only 
a  few  persons  occupy  a  room  protected  from  draughts  as  above 
described,  it  may  be  borne  for  a  time ;  but  then  the  chimney  begins 
to  smoke,  if  not  continuously,  at  least  occasionally,  from  slight  dis- 
turbances of  the  atmosphere,  such  as  gusts  of  wind,  slamming  of 
doors,  or  even  the  sweep  of  a  lady's  dress  in  the  room." 

It  is,  therefore,  absolutely  necessary  that  in  countries  of  variable 
climates,  like  ours,  houses  should  be  artificially  warmed,  if  the  air  in 
them  is  to  be  kept  pure  by  ventilation. 

The  objection  that  the  air  thus  artificially  warmed  is  dry  and  dis- 
agreeable may  be  obviated  by  supplying  water,  either  by  evaporation 
or  spray,  to  the  air  after  it  has  been  warmed.  Air,  to  be  pleasant 
for  respiration,  must  contain  a  proper  proportion  of  moisture  ;  that  is, 
near  to  the  point  of  saturation,  or  what  is  usually  contained  in  air  out 


^  Government  Bhie-Book  on  Warming  and  Ventilation  of  Dwellings,  p.  126. 


PUBLIC    HYGIE.NE.  75 

of  doors.  The  quantity  of  water  required  for  saturation  of  the  air  dif- 
fers with  the  temperature.  Air  at  66  degrees  requires  6  grains  of 
water  in  each  cubic  foot,  but  air  at  30  degrees  holds  only  2  grains ; 
consequently,  if  air  be  reduced  from  G6  degrees  to  30  degrees,  it 
parts  with  4  grains  of  its  moisture  per  cubic  foot,  in  the  form  of 
dew ;  if  then  it  be  afterwards  raised  again  to  65  degrees,  without 
more  water  being  supplied,  it  must  necessarily  feel  dry  and  harsh. 
Hence!,  if  in  winter,  by  the  warming  apparatus,  we  raise  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  air  from  32  degrees  to  65  degrees,  we  must  suppl}'  it  with 
water ;  otherwise  it  must  necessarily  be  disagreeable  and  unhealthy, 
because  of  its  rapid  abstraction  of  moisture  from  the  lungs  and 
skin. 

Having  thus  shown  the  necessity,  in  general,  of  providing  pure  air 
for'  all  citizens  of  a  Commonwealth,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  examine 
the  conditions  —  which  are  by  no  means  so  few  as  may  appear  on  a 
superficial  examination  —  under  which  alone  this  can  be  done. 

To  provide  pure  air  for  every  person,  and  thus  protect  each  from 
the  contaminating  influences  of  all  kinds  of  miasmatic  and  other  im- 
purities, the  legislative  power  in  each  State  must  regulate  — 

1.  The  la3dng  out  of  cities  and  villages  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
make  possible  the  needful  ventilation  of  their  buildings,  and  the  pro- 
viding of  public  drainage. 

2.  The  construction  of  all  private  as  well  as  public  buildings  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  make  accessible  to  every  inmate  the  necessary 
quantity  of  pure  air,  and  the  establisliing  of  private  drainage. 

3.  Personal  cleanliness. 

4.  The  laying  out  of  counties  and  townships. 

But,  before  entering  into  details,  let  me  cite  a  few  touching  pas- 
sages from  Dickens's  famous  Dombey  and  Son  :  — 

*■'  Breathe  the  polluted  air,  foul  with  every  impurity  that  is  poison- 
ous to  health  and  life ;  and  have  every  sense,  conferred  upon  our 
race  for  its  delight  and  happiness,  offended,  sickened,  and  disgusted, 
and  made  a  ciiannel  by  which  misery  and  death  alone  can  enter. 
Vaii&ly  attempt  to  think  of  any  simple  plant,  or  flower,  or  wholesome 
weed,  that,  set  in  this  foiLid  bed,  could  have  its  natural  growth,  or 
put  its  little  leaves  forth  to  the  sun,  as  God  designed  it.  And  then, 
calling  up  some  ghastly  child,  with  stunted  form  and  wicked  face, 
hold  forth  on  its  unnatural  sinfulness,  and  lament  its  being,  so  early, 


70  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

far  away  from  heaven,  —  but  think  a  little  of  its  having  been  con- 
ceived, and  born,  and  bred  in  hell ! 

"Those  who  study  the  physical  sciences,  and  bring  them  to  bear 
upon  the  liealth  of  man,  tell  us,  that  if  the  noxious  particles  that  rise 
from  vitiated  air  were  palpable  to  the  sight,  that  we  should  see  them 
lowering  in  a  dense,  black  cloud  above  such  haunts,  and  rolling  slowly 
on  to  corrupt  the  better  portion  of  a  town.  But  if  the  moral  pesti- 
lence that  rises  with  them,  and  in  the  eternal  laws  of  outraged  nature 
is  inseparable  from  them,  could  be  made  discoverable  too,  how 
terrible  the  revelation!  Then  should  we  see  depravity,  impiety, 
drunkenness,  theft,  murder,  and  a  long  train  of  nameless  sins  against 
the  natural  affections  and  repulsions  of  mankind,  overhanging  the 
devoted  spots,  and  creeping  on  to  blight  the  innocent  and  spread 
contagion  among  the  pure.  Then  should  we  see  how  the  same 
poisoned  fountains  that  flow  into  our  hospitals  and  lazar-houses, 
inundate  the  jails,  and  make  the  convict- ships  swim  deep  and  roll 
across  the  seas,  and  overrun  vast  continents  with  crime.  Then  should 
we  stand  appalled,  to  know  that  where  we  generate  disease  to  strike 
our  children  down  and  entail  itself  in  unborn  generations,  there  also 
we  breed,  by  the  same  certain  process,  infancy  that  knows  no  inno- 
cence, youth  without  modesty  or  shame,  maturity  that  is  mature  in 
nothing  but  in  suffering  and  in  guilt,  blasted  old  age  that  is  a  scan- 
dal on  the  form  we  bear.  Unnatural  humanity!  When  we  shall 
gather  grapes  from  thorns,  and  figs  from  thistles ;  when  fields  of 
grain  shall  spring  up  from  offal  in  the  by-ways  of  our  wicked  cities, 
and  roses  bloom  in  the  fat  church-yards  that  they  cherish,  then  we 
may  look  for  natural  humanity  and  find  it  growing  from  such  seed. ' ' 


CHAPTER    IV. 

LAYING   OUT   OF   CITIES. 

The  laying  out  of  cities  according  to  principles  of  sanitary  science 
is  practicable  only,  of  course,  in  new  cities,  or  in  new  additions  to 
cities  already  existing,  though  it  may  in  many  cases  be  possible  also 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  77 

to  rebuild  old  and  badly  built  cities  on  a  sanitary  plan,  at  least  in 
part ;  as  Paris,  for  instance,  was  remodelled.  Large  fires  and  other 
circumstances  may  also  make  such  reforms  practicable  in  many  cities. 

In  this  matter  it  is  first  of  all  necessary,  that  the  State  should  deter- 
mine and  establish  for  all  cities  and  villages  the  minimum  width  of 
boulevards,  sjtreets,  and  alleys,  and  the  proportionate  number  of  open 
public  squares.  In  my  judgment,  every  fourth  street  should  be  a 
boulevard,  and  every  fourth  square  in  every  direction  would  con- 
stitute the  proper  proportion  of  public  squares.  At  least  a  part  of 
these  squares,  and  the  centre  and  side  lines  of  the  boulevards  also, 
should  be  planted  with  trees,  to  absorb  the  carbonic  acid  gas  with 
which  the  air  of  a  crowded  city  is  always  surcharged,  and  to  furnish 
shade  for  the  inhabitants. 

Indeed,  the  value  of  trees  for  purifying  the  air,  in  large  cities 
especially,  can  scarcely  be  overestimated.  Their  influence  as  such 
purifying  agents  is,  indeed,  almost  incredible.  Take  into  calcula- 
tion, for  instance,  that  a  fair-sized  elm,  plane,  or  lime-tree,  will 
produce  seven  hundred  thousand  leaves,  with  an  area  of  two  hundred 
thousand  square  feet.  Now,  all  these  leaves  greedily  absorb  the 
carbonic  acid  of  the  atmosphere, — which  to  animal  life  is  simply 
poison, — and  having  absorbed  it,  breathe  it  forth  again  as  oxygen. 
At  the  same  time  they  thereby  modify  the  temperature,  promoting 
coolness  in  the  summer  and  furnishing  warmth  in  winter;  while  the 
trunks  of  the  trees  materially  assist  sewerage  in  purifying  the  soil. 

I  may  add,  that  the  same  principle  of  purifying  the  air  holds  good 
in  regard  to  house-plants.  I  quote  from  a  celebrated  authority.  Dr. 
J.  M.  Anders,  of  Philadelphia :  — 

"The  average  rate  of  transpiration  for  plants  having  thin,  soft 
leaves,  like  geranium,  lantanas,  etc.,  is  found  to  be  an  ounce  and  a 
half  of  water}^  vapor  per  square  foot  of  leaf-surface  for  twelve  diurnal 
hours  of  clear  weather.  At  this  rate,  a  great  tree  like  the  Washing- 
ton Elm  at  Cambridge,  which  has  been  estimated  to  have  two 
hundred  thousand  square  feet  of  leaf-surface,  would  exhale  seven 
and  three-fourths  tons  of  water  in  twelve  hours.  Tlie  rate  of  trans- 
piration for  a  house-plant  is  at  least  fifty  per  cent  more  rapid  than 
for  one  in  the  open  air ;  and  it  is  evident,  on  the  face  of  it,  that  a 
number  of  such  plants  must  have  a  material  influence  upon  the 
humidity  of  the  air  in  which  they  are  ke[)t. 

******** 


78  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

"  By  means  of  the  hydrometer,  the  atmosphere  of  two  rooms  at 
the  Episcopal  Hospital,  in  which  the  conditions  and  dimensions 
were  in  every  respect  similar,  were  tested  simultaneous!}'-,  in  order 
to  note  the  variations  produced  by  growing  plants.  In  the  window 
of  one  of  the  rooms  were  situated  five  thrifty  plants ;  the  other 
contained  none.  For  eighteen  consecutive  days  the  dew-point  of  the 
room  containing  the  plants  gave  an  average  complement  one  and  a 
half  degrees  lower  than  the  room  in  which  there  were  no  plants. 

"To  make  it  sure  that  the  difference  in  humidity  was  due  solely 
to  the  presence  of  the  plants,  the  conditions  were  varied  and  further 
observations  made,  but  the  results  were  similar. 

"Since  it  is  well  known  that  certain  maladies  —  especially  those 
affecting  the  lungs  and  aii'-passages  —  are  benefited  by  a  moderately 
moist  and  warm  atmosphere,  and  since  plants  furnish  moisture  to  the 
warm  air  of  a  dwelling,  these  may  properly  be  classed  as  therapeutic 
agents. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  ** 

"  The  plants  should  be  well  selected,  and  kept  in  a  thriving  condi- 
tion. The  chief  point  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  the  selection  of  the 
plants  are,  first:  that  they  have  soft,  thin  leaves;  secondly:  foliage 
plants,  or  those  having  extensive  leaf-surface,  are  to  be  preferred  ; 
thirdly:  those  which  are  highly  scented  (as  the  tuberose,  etc.)  should 
be  avoided,  because  they  often  give  rise  to  headache  and  other 
unpleasant  symptoms. 

"In  order  to  facilitate  a  practical  application  of  the  data  gained 
by  experiment,  the  following  formula  has  been  carefully  prepared : 
Given  a  room  twenty  feet  long,  twelve  feet  wide,  and  ceiling  twelve 
feet  high,  warmed  by  dry  air ;  a  dozen  thrifty  plants,  with  soft,  thin 
leaves,  and  a  leaf-surface  of  six  square  feet  each,  would,  if  well 
watered,  and  so  situated  as  to  receive  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun 
(preferably  the  morning  sun)  for  at  least  several  hours,  raise  the 
proportion  of  aqueous  vapor  to  about  the  health  standard. 

"To  obtain  the  best  results,  both  the  rooms  occupied  during  the 
day  and  the  sleeping-apartments  should  contain  plants.  It  was  for  a 
long  time  the  opinion  of  scientific  interpreters  generally,  that  plants 
in  sleepmg-apartments  were  unwholesome,  because  of  their  giving 
off  carbonic  acid  gas  at  night ;  but  it  has  been  shown  by  experiment, 
that  it  would  require  twenty  thrifty  plants  to  produce  an  amount  of 
the  gas  equivalent  to  that  inhaled  by  one  baby  sleeper ;  so  that  is  no 


PUBT.TC    HYGIENE.  79 

valid  objection  to  their  admission,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
benefit  arising  from  their  presence." 

But  there  is  another  way  in  which  trees  and  plants  act  directly 
upon  the  human  body,  and  purify  the  air  which  has  been  contami- 
nated by  its  exiialations ;  for  our  own  bodies  inhale  and  exhale  elec- 
tricity, like  the  earth  or  the  air.  It  has  been  calculated  that  the 
watery  vapor  which  in  the  course  of  twenty-four  hours  exhales  from 
the  surface  of  a  healthy  body  amounts  to  from  thirty  to  forty  ounces 
of  water.  This  is  sufficient  to  disturb  the  electric  equiUbrium  of  the 
body,  and  to  evolve  electricity  of  much  higher  tension  than  that  set 
free  by  chemical  action.  This  evaporation  may  probably  account  for 
the  traces  of  free  electricity  generally  to  be  detected  in  the  bo'dy, 
by  merely  insulating  a  person  and  placing  him  in  contact  with  a  con- 
densing electrometer.  Pfaff  and  Ahrens  generally  found  the  elec- 
tricity of  the  body  thus  examined  to  be  positive,  especially  when  the 
circulation  had  been  excited  by  partaking  of  alcoholic  stimulants. 
Hummer,  another  observer,  found  that  in  2,422  experiments  on  him- 
self, his  body  was  positively  electric  in  1,252,  negative  in  771,  and 
neutral  in  399.  The  causes  of  the  variations  in  the  character  of  the 
electric  conditions  of  the  body  admit  of  ready  explanations  in  the 
varying  composition  of  the  perspired  fluid.  For  if  it  contains,  as  it 
generally  does,  some  free  acid,  it,  by  its  evaporation,  would  leave 
the  body  positively  electric ;  while  if  it  merely  contains  neutral  salt, 
it  would  induce  an  opposite  condition.  The  accuracy  of  these  state- 
ments can  be  easily  verified  by  means  of  the  electrometer. 

But  perhaps  the  most  astounding  feature  of  modern  scientific  dis- 
coveries is  the  reciprocal  influence  of  electricity  on  plants.  I  have 
already  explained  the  vast  benefits  which  result  from  the  exhalation 
of  ozone,  or  electric  oxygen,  by  fiowers.  And  now  Dr.  C.  W.  Sie- 
mens, in  a  report  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Physical  Science,  in  Lon- 
don, makes  the  announcement:  that  plants  shut  up  in  a  closed  room, 
if  lighted  by  electric  lights  flourish  quite  as  well  as  those  exposed  to 
sunlight. 

To  substantiate  his  statement,  he  exhibited  tulip  buds,  and  placing 
them  under  the  influence  of  electric  light  forty  minutes,  brought 
them  forth  before  the  eyes  of  his  spectators  full-grown  flowers. 
Mustard,  bean,  cucumber,  melon,  and  other  quick-growing  seeds 
developed  in  the  same  proportion. 

It  thus  appears  clearly,  that  electric  light,  if  properly  applied,  can 


80  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

be  made  to  do  the  same  duty  for  plants  as  sunlight,  and  that  plants 
can  thus  be  made  to  grow  and  develop  in  night  as  well  as  in  day- 
time, —  another  instance  of  the  wonderful  subjugation  of  nature  unto 
man. 

The  rationale  of  this  purification  of  the  air  by  trees,  flowers,  and 
blossoms  of  trees  is  thus  explained  by  Robert  Hunt,  in  his  "Re- 
searches on  Light  "  :  — 

"It  is  only  the  green  parts  of  plants  which  absorb  carbonic  acid: 
the  flowers  absorb  oxygen  gas.  Plants  grow  in  soils  composed  of 
diverse  materials,  and  they  derive  from  these,  by  the  soluble  powers 
of  water,  which  is  taken  up  by  the  roots  and  by  mechanical  force 
carried  over  every  part,  carbonic  acid,  carbonate,  and  organic  matters 
containing  carbon.  Evaporation  is  continually  going  on,  and  this 
water  escapes  freely  from  the  leaves  during  the  night,  when  the 
functions  of  the  vegetable,  like  those  of  the  animal  world,  are  at 
rest,  and  carries  with  it  carbonic  acid.  Water  and  carbonic  acid 
are  sucked  up  by  capillary  attraction,  and  both  evaporate  from  the 
exterior  part  of  the  leaves. 

"  There  is  no  reversion  of  the  processes  which  are  necessary  to 
support  the  life  of  a  plant.  The  same  functions  are  operating  in  the 
same  way  by  day  and  by  night,  but  differing  greatly  in  degree. 
During  the  hours  of  sunshine  the  whole  of  the  carbonic  acid  ab- 
sorbed by  the  k  aves  or  taken  up  with  water  by  the  roots  is  decom- 
posed, all  the  functions  of  the  plant  are  excited,  the  processes  of  in- 
halation and  exhalation  are  quickened,  and  the  plant  pours  out  to  the 
atmosphere  streams  of  pure  oxygen  at  the  same  time  that  it  removes 
a  large  quantity  of  deleterious  carbonic  acid  from  it.  In  the  shade, 
the  exciting  power  being  lessened,  these  operations  are  slower,  and 
in  the  dark  they  are  very  nearly,  but  certainly  not  quite  suspended." 
The  changes  which  take  place  in  the  seed  during  the  process  of 
germination  have  been  investigated  by  Saussure,  and  the  result  is 
this :  oxygen  gas  is  consumed  and  carbonic  acid  is  evolved ;  and  the 
volume  of  the  latter  is  exactly  equal  to  the  volume  of  the  former. 
The  grain  weighs  less  after  germination  than  it  did  before,  the  loss 
of  weight  varying  from  one-third  to  one-fifth.  This  loss,  of  course, 
depends  on  the  combination  of  its  carbon  with  the  oxygen  absorbed, 
which  is  evolved  as  carbonic  acid. 

For  the  discovery  that  oxygen  gas  is  exhaled  from  the  leaves  of 
plants  during  the  daytime,  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Priestley ;  «nd 


PUBLIC    HVGIEM!:.  81 

Sennebicr  first  pointed  out  that  carbonic  acid  is  required  for  the  dis- 
engagement of  the  oxygen  in  this  process.  M.  Theodore  de  Saus- 
sure  and  Do  Caudolle  fully  established  this  fact. 

The  experiments  of  Sennebier  further  show,  that  the  most  refran- 
gible of  the  solar  rays,  viz.,  the  violet,  is  the  most  active  in  deter- 
mining the  decomposition  of  carbonic  acid  by  plants.  Whether, 
however,  this  fact  is  altogether  to  be  trusted,  and,  above  all,  whether 
it  holds  good  in  regard  to  plants  of  all  colors,  is  not  yet  known.  It 
is  more  than  likely  that  the  same  colored  solar  rays  —  say  violet,  for 
instance  —  may  operate  differently  upon  differently  colored  plants. 

With  public  squares  sufficient  in  number,  and  wide  boulevards  and 
streets  lined  with  trees,  — the  squares  filled,  besides,  with  flowers  and 
shrubs,  — there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  providing  the  most  central  part 
of  a  city  with  sufficient  pure  air  to  meet  the  necessities  of  every  prop- 
erly constructed  building. 

The  erection  of  fountains  and  public  baths  in  various  parts  of  the 
city  would,  of  course,  still  further  increase  its  healthfulness. 

PURIFICATION   OF   THE    SOIL. 

It  is  further  necessary,  that  the  State  or  the  municipal  corporation 
should  provide  for  all  cities  and  villages  a  perfect  system  of  drain- 
age. The  ground  below,  as  well  as  the  air  around  and  above  us, 
requires  continuous  and  thorough  purification.  Next  to  the  air,  the 
soil  is  the  main  carrier  of  epidemical  and  other  diseases ;  and  being 
less  susceptible  than  the  atmosphere  of  •  continuous  purification,  it 
has  been  considered  necessary  by  the  most  experienced  sanitary 
officials  to  prohibit  the  habitation  of  all  underground  rooms,  whether 
cellars  or  basements,  and  to  insist  upon  an  air-tight  cementing  of  all 
the  walls  and  floors  of  cellars  and  basements. 

A  perfect  system  of  drainage  for  a  city  or  village  must  determine 
the  number,  sites,  and  outlets  of  main  sewers  and  the  branch  sewer- 
pipes  to  each  house.  All  the  sewers  and  sewer-pipes  should  be  laid 
as  deep  as  practicable  under  the  ground,  and  should  be  built  as  air- 
tight as  possible  ;  since  it  has  been  abundantly  demonstrated  that  the 
common  sewers  and  cast-iron  sewer-pipes,  without  close-fitting  valves,, 
allow  the  penetration  of  the  vicious  gases  generated  in  them,  whicli 
thus  spread  from  below  into  the  houses.  All  sewer-openings  on  the 
streets  or  alleys  should  have  air-tight  valves,  to  admit  the  surface- 
water  without  allowing  the  escape  of  noxious  vapors. 

6 


S2  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Arrangements  should  be  made  for  the  removal  of  the  sewage  and 
its  chemical  disinfection,  so  that  it  may  be  speedily  returned  to  the 
soil  to  which  it  belongs,  as  its  most  potent  fertilizer,  and  which  in  its 
turn  is  for  it  the  most  complete  and  final  disinfectant. 

Both  these  requirements  of  a  good  sewer-system  are  secured  by 
the  one  now  adopted  and  carried  out  in  many  parts  of  Great  Britain, 
and  sliould  at  once  be  made  to  replace  our  system,  whereby  the  great 
rivers  are  generally  made  the  receptacles  of  the  filth  of  the  sewers, 
the  wretched  effects  whereof  in  London  led  to  the  adoption  of  the 
present  system.  So  offensive  had  the  smell  from  the  Thames,  and 
from  the  clogged-up  sewers  opening  into  the  Thames  become,  that  a 
^general  clamor  arose  for  the  abolition  of  all  sewers ;  and  Faraday,  in 
n  letter  to  the  London  Times,  in  1854,  was  constrained  to  say:  "  The 
smell  was  very  bad,  and  common  to  the  whole  of  the  water  ;  it  was  tiie 
same  as  that  which  now  comes  up  from  the  gully-holes  in  the  streets. 
The  whole  river  was  for  a  time  a  real  sewer."  It  was  then  that 
the  present  system  was  proposed,  by  means  of  which  the  sewage  of 
all  i^arts  of  London  is  carried  far  away  from  the  city  to  places  where 
it  can  be  utilized,  by  drainage  so  deep  as  practically  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  its  gases  through  the  soil. 

"  This  vast  construction  comprises  three  gigantic  main  tunnels  or 
sewers  on  each  side  of  the  river.  These  completely  divide  under- 
ground London  from  west  to  east,  and,  cutting  all  existing  sewers  at 
right  angles,  intercept  their  flow  to  the  Thames,  and  are  assumed  to 
carry  every  gallon  of  London  sewage,  under  certain  conditions,  into 
the  river,  at  a  certain  point  far  below  the  city  limits  and  not  far  dis- 
tant from  the  sea.  One  of  those  drains  is  about  eight  miles  in 
length,  being  at  its, rise  some  four  feet  six  inches  in  diameter,  and 
thence  increasing  in  circumference  as  the  waters  of  the  sewers  it 
intercepts  require  a  wider  course,  until  at  its  termination  its  diameter 
is  twelve  feet  six  inches.  The  minimum  fall  of  this  drain  is  twelve 
feet  in  the  mile  ;  its  maximum,  at  the  beginning,  nearly  fifty  feet  a 
mile.  It  is  laid  at  a  depth  of  from  twenty  to  twenty-six  feet  below 
the  ground,  and  it  drains  an  area  of  fourteen  square  miles.  The 
other  drains,  of  similar  vastness,  are  laid  at  a  depth  of  from  thii-ty  to 
forty  feet.  One  of  the  reservoirs  is  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  one  hun- 
dred feet  wide,  and  twentj^-one  feet  deep ;  it  is  made  of  this  great 
length,  in  proportion  to  width,  to  allow  of  its  being  roofed  with  brick 
arches,  which  are  again  covered  with  earth  to  a  considerable  thick- 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  83 

Tiess,  so  that  not  the  slightest  smell  or  escape  of  miasma  can  take 
place.  While  the  sewage  is  in  the  reservoirs  it  is  deodorized  by  an 
admixture  of  lime.  When  the  tide  is  at  its  height,  the  sluices,  which 
pass  from  the  bottom  of  tlie  reservoir  far  out  into  the  bed  of  the 
river,  are  opened,  and  the  wliole  allowed  to  flow  away.  It  takes  two 
hours  thus  to  empty  the  reservoir,  by  wliich  time  the  tide  sweeps 
down  strongly,  thus  placing  the  contents  of  the  sewers,  every  twelve 
hours,  twenty-six  miles  or  more  distant  from  the  metropolis." 

But  I  do  not  propose  that  the  sewage  of  our  cities  be  thus  lost  to 
use,  as  that  of  London  is  lost.  It  should  be  carried  back  to  the  soil, 
and  reinvigorate  it  for  further  purposes.  Our  own  lands  need  every 
day  more  and  more  this  invigorating  sewage,  and  the  cities  along  our 
great  rivers  need  to  be  freed  from  the  miasmatic  influences  they  carry 
along,  as  it  is  borne  on  by  their  waters,  no  matter  how  great  the  dis- 
infecting properties  of  running  water. 

Thus  Prof.  Liebig  writes:  "Of  all  the  elements  of  the  fields 
which,  in  their  products,  in  the  shape  of  corn  and  meal,  are  carried 
into  the  cities  and  there  consumed,  nothing,  or  as  good  as  nothing, 
returns  to  the  fields.  It  is  clear  that  if  these  elements  were  collected 
without  loss,  and  every  year  restored  to  the  fields,  they  would  then 
retain  the  power  to  furnish  to  the  cities  the  same  quantity  of  corn 
and  meal,  and  it  is  equally  clear  that  if  the  fields  do  not  receive 
back  these  elements,  agriculture  must  soon  suffer.  In  regard  to 
the  utility  of  the  avails  of  the  sewage  of  towns  as  manures,  no 
farmer,  and  scarcely  any  intelligent  person,  entertains  a  doubt." 

Our  modern  faciUties  for  transportation,  and  for  removing  all 
kinds  of  compost  by  mechanical  appliances,  should  induce  all  mu- 
nicipal corporations  to  apply  these  powers  to  the  desired  object,  so 
that  the  diurnal  purification  of  each  city  and  village  should  be  as 
regular  in  its  progress  as  the  succession  of  day  and  night,  and  the 
vast  amounts  of  filth  of  all  kinds  that  now  poison  the  watercourses, 
the  fish,  and  the  people  living  near  river-banks,  may  be  returned  to 
the  soil  at  many  more  or  less  distant  points  in  the  surrounding 
country. 

In  regard  to  the  momentous  question,  how  to  utilize  sewage  in 
the  best  manner, — health,  economy,  and  utiUty  considered, — it 
would  be  difficult  to  decide  which  of  the  various  methods  proposed 
possesses  the  greatest  advantage. 

One  of  these   methods  is  known   as  the  phosphate  process,  and 


84  LIBERTY    AND    LAAV. 

appears,  in  some  instances  at  least,  to  have  been  successfully 
employed.  The  phosphate  in  question  is  prepared  by  the  action  of 
diluted  hydrochloric  or  sulphuric  acid  on  a  pulverized  phosphate  of 
alumina  found  in  the  West  Indies.  The  soluble  phosphate  thus 
formed  is  a  powerful  antiseptic  and  disinfectant,  and  on  being 
properly  diluted  and  added  to  the  sewage-water  in  reservoirs, 
where  it  can  be  perfectly  tranquil,  slowly  precipitates  all  the  solid 
organic  matter  held  in  suspension.  At  the  same  time  it  completel}- 
deodorizes  the  water,  purifying  it  to  such  an  extent  that,  it  is  said,, 
fishes  can  live  in  it,  and  it  will  stand  through  the  hot  summer 
weather  without  putrefying  or  emitting  a  disagreeable  odor. 

Not  a  great  while  ago,  a  report  was  made  by  a  committee  of  the 
British  Association  of  Science  relative  to  the  treatment  and  utiliza- 
tion of  sewage,  in  which  the  ground  is  taken  that  it  is  only  by 
filtering  this  material  through  the  earth  itself  that  the  dissolved  and 
suspended  substances,  which  are  the  food  of  vegetable  and  the  poison 
of  animal  life,  can  be  kept  out  of  rivers  and  applied  to  the  production 
of  growths.  After  this  straining,  the  liquid  matter  that  escapes  may, 
according  to  this  report,  be  allowed  to  enter  into  the  I'ivers  without 
producing  any  of  the  deleterious  effects  that  accompany  the  intro- 
duction of  the  original  sewage-matter.  It  is  asserted  that  light, 
porous,  gravelly  soils,  and  even  blown  sand,  thus  treated  with 
sewage,  furnish  crops  of  great  richness,  and  meadows  watered  with 
the  substance  yield  an  astonishing  growth  of  grass,  exceeding  that 
of  soils  to  which  any  other  kind  of  fertilizer  has  been  applied. 

Quite  recently,  another  method  for  the  disinfection  and  utilization 
of  sewage  as  manure  has  attracted  considerable  attention.  This 
process  consists  in  applying  to  the  sewage  clay  treated  with  oil  of 
vitriol  and  mixed  with  a  little  water,  in  the  proportion  of  six  and  a 
half  hundred-weight  of  the  vitriolized  clay  to  every  one  hundi'ed 
thousand  gallons  of  the  sewage.  To  that  mixture  one  and  a  half 
hundred-weight  of  slaked  lime  is  added.  After  a  few  hours,  a  pre- 
cipitation forms  at  the  bottom  of  the  receptacle  containing  the 
sewage,  leaving  a  clear  liquid  at  the  top.  The  precipitation  is  the 
manure,  and  both  it  and  the  liquid  are  entirely  devoid  of  odor,  and 
inoffensive ;  the  fluid  may  be  used  for  irrigating  land,  or  allowed  to 
escape  into  the  sea.  To  obtain  this  sewage  regularly,  the  streets  of 
every  city  should  be  swept  ever}^  night,  and  the  dirt,  together  with 
the  sewage,  taken  to  the  soil  of  the  agriculturist  for  its  rejuvenation. 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  85 

By  thus  keeping  the  streets  clean,  it  will  also  be  practicable  to 
sprinkle  them  through  the  day,  during  the  dusty  season,  and  thereby 
to  moisten  the  heated  air  to  its  normal  condition,  and  refresh  the  ex- 
hausted bodies  of  the  inhabitants.  Every  city  should  inaugurate 
such  a  system  of  sprinkling  the  streets. 

The  fire  departments  of  every  city,  having  a  plentiful  supply  of 
water,  can  very  easily  extend  their  functions  so  as  to  effect  this 
•cleaning  and  sprinkling  of  streets.  All  the  cities  along  rivers,  for 
instance,  can  without  much  cost  have  their  streets  every  day  regu- 
larly washed  from  the  water-plugs  arranged  for  the  fire-engines.  As 
matters  stand  at  present,  people  wait  for  a  heavy  rain  to  accomplish 
this.  But  heavy  rains  do  not  come  at  our  bidding,  and  light  ones 
only  make  the  condition  of  our  streets  worse.  It  behooves  man  to 
help  himself,  and  not  wait  upon  the  irrational  forces  of  nature,  that 
may  send  down  a  heavy  rain  when  it  is  a  positive  injury,  and  with- 
hold the  moisture  when  all  the  earth  cries  for  it.  We  must  learn  to 
control  this,  and  provide  by  art  against  the  irregularity  of  the  action 
of  natural  forces. 

The  soil  being,  next  to  the  air,  the  most  active  agent  in  spread- 
ing disease  and  epidemic  matter,  it  is  evident  that  the  soil-water  of 
cities  and  villages,  their  springs  and  wells,  must  be  generally  of  an 
unhealthy  character,  and  unfit  to  be  used  for  drinking  purposes. 
Hence  public  water-works  are  very  essential  for  the  preservation  of 
health,  and  their  construction  and  use  should  be  insisted  on  wherever 
this  is  at  all  practicable.  But,  besides  their  great  sanitary  value  as 
furnishing  the  best  drinking  water,  they  are  indispensable  for  the 
purposes  of  drainage,  for  watering  the  streets  and  parks,  and  all 
the  vegetation  of  a  city,  and  for  the  establishment  of  public  baths. 

Gas-works,  with  tlieir  constant  eflfllux  of  sulphureted  hydrogen, 
should  never  be  tolerated  within  the  city  limits ;  and  in  the  laying  of 
gas-pipes  it  should  be  seen  to,  that  they  are  put  at  as  great  a  depth  as 
practicable  under  the  ground,  and  made  tight  and  secure  against  the 
escape  of  gas.  Indeed,  all  factories  that  emit  foul  odors,  and  poison 
the  air,  should  be  removed  far  from  the  city  and  disinfected  daily. 

Nor  should  slaughter-houses  be  tolerated  within  the  city,  and  the 
strictest  control  should  be  exercised  over  them  to  secure  the  removal 
of  all  noxious  matter  and  the  disinfection  of  their  offal.  The  public 
health  of  every  city  demands  that  a  rational  system  of  abattoirs 
should  supersede  the  present  miserably  unsystematic  arrangement  of 


86 .  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

slaughter-houses,  with  their  inevitably  accompanying  nuisances  of 
soap,  fat,  etc.  ;  establishments  concerning  which  the  New  York  Board 
of  Health  says:  "It  is  positively  asserted  that  more  noxious  gases 
escape  into  the  air  from  this  source  than  would  result  from  the  decom- 
position of  human  bodies  if  the  whole  island  were  a  grave-yard."  It 
makes  one  blush  to  reflect  that  tliese  life- destroying  establishments 
are  still  tolerated  in  the  midst  of  large  cities,  when  so  far  back  as- 
the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  a  petition  was  addressed  to  the  king,  from 
several  parishes  of  the  city  of  London,  affirming  that  the  said 
"  parishes  were  greatly  annoyed  and  distempered  by  corrupt  air 
engendered  in  the  said  parishes  by  reason  of  the  slaughter  of  beasts 
had  and  done  in  the  butchery  of  St.  Nicholas  ;  "  which  petition  called 
forth  an  enactment  that  "  no  butcher  or  his  servant  is  to  slay  any 
beast  within  the  walls  of  London,  or  any  walled  town  in  England* 
under  a  penalty." 


CHAPTEE    V. 

CONSTRUCTION   OF   BUILDINGS   WITHIN   THE   CITIES. 

Apart  from  what  is  above  required  for  the  city  at  large,  a  general 
building-law  should  be  passed  for  the  erection  of  all  new  buildings 
in  the  city ;  and  another  law  requiring  that  all  buildings  already 
erected  should  be  made  conformable  to  the  laws  of  sanitary  science, 
so  far  as  practicable. 

For  executing  such  a  building-law,  two  classes  of  commissioners- 
should  be  joined  in  aboard  to  be  appointed, —  architects  and  sanitary 
officers.  The  architectural  commissioners  will  have  to  see  that  the 
necessary  architectural  requirements  for  buildings  are  complied  with,^ 
as  to  thickness  of  walls,  strength  of  foundations,  fire-escapes,  fire- 
proof externally,  etc.  ;  the  sanitary  commissioner,  in  conjunction  with 
the  architect,  should  supervise  the  sanitary  requirements,  such  as  the 
height  of  the  building  itself,  of  its  several  stories,  of  its  windows, 
and  their  position  in  regard  to  light  and  fresh  air ;  the  water-closets, 
and  their  proper  connection  with  the  general  sewer ;  the  construction 
of  the  kitchen,  with  reference  to  cleanliness,  absorption  or  removal  of 
all  fumes,  stenches,  etc.,  and  immediate  removal  of  all  offal  and  dirt; 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  87 

the  proper  supply  of  bath-rooms ;  and  such  a  S3'stem  of  ventilation 
and  disinfection  as  the  exigencies  of  the  building  may  require,  and 
as  I  have  already  pointed  out  to  some  extent  in  the  chapter  on  Pure 
Air. 

To  cut  off  as  much  as  possible  communication  between  the  house 
and  the  soil,  the  floors  and  walls  of  every  cellar  and  basement  should 
be  made  as  air-tight  as  possible,  and  the  habitation  of  cellars  and 
basements  should  be  absolutely  forbiddc  n. 

This  fact  of  sanitary  science,  namely,  that  the  soil,  under  the  house 
is  as  capable  of  conducting  impure  air,  pregnant  with  disease,  into 
the  house,  as  the  air  outside  of  the  house,  is  also  one  of  those  cir- 
cumstances that  are  very  little  known  and  still  less  heeded,  even  by 
experienced  architects.     Dr.  Pettenkoffer  remarks  in  relation  thereto: 

"  Remarkable  testimony  as  to  the  permeability  of  the  ground,  and 
of  the  foundations  of  our  houses,  has  been  given  by  gas  emanations 
into  houses  which  had  no  gas  laid  on.  I  know  cases  where  persons 
were  poisoned  and  killed  by  gas  which  had  to  travel  for  twenty  feet 
under  the  street,  and  then  through  the  foundations,  cellar-vaults,  and 
flooring  of  the  ground-floor  rooms.  As  these  kinds  of  accidents 
happened  only  in  winter,  they  have  been  brought  forward  as  a  proof 
that  the  frozen  soil  did  not  allow  the  gas  to  escape  straight  upwards, 
but  drove  it  into  the  house.  I  have  told  you  already  wh}'  I  take  tlie 
frozen  soil  to  be  not  more  air-tight  than  when  not  frozen.  In  such 
cases  the  penetration  of  gas  into  the  houses  is  facilitated  by  the  cur- 
rent in  the  ground-air  caused  by  the  house.  The  house,  being 
warmer  inside  than  the  external  air,  acts  like  a  heated  chimney  on  its 
surroundings,  and  chiefly  on  the  ground  upon  which  it  stands,  and 
the  air  therein,  which  we  will  call  the  ground-air.  The  warm  air  in 
the  chimney  is  pressed  into  and  up  the  chimney  by  the  cold  air  sur- 
rounding the  same.  The  chimney  cannot  act  without  heat,  and  the 
heat  is  only  the  means  of  disturliing  the  equilibrium  of  the  columns 
of  air  inside  and  outside  the  chimney.  The  warm  air  inside  is  lighter 
than  the  cold  air  outside,  and  this  being  so,  the  former  must  float 
upward  through  the  chimney,  just  like  oil  in  water.  It  continues  to- 
do  so  as  long  as  fresh  cold  air  comes  into  its  neighborhood  from  out- 
side. As  soon  as  we  interrupt  this  arrival,  the  draught  into  the 
chimney  is  at  an  end.  Any  other  way  of  looking  at  the  action  of 
chimneys  leads  to  erroneous  views,  which  have  many  times  stopped 
the  progress  of  the  art  of  heating  and  ventilating. 


SS  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

"  Thus  our  heated  houses  ventilate  themselves,  not  only  through  the 
"walls,  but  also  through  the  ground  on  which  the  house  stands.  If 
there  is  any  gas  or  other  smelling  substance  in  the  surrounding 
ground-air,  they  will  enter  the  current  of  this  ventilation. 

"  The  movement  of  gas  through  the  ground  into  the  house  may  give 
ns  w^arning  that  the  ground-air  is  in  continual  intercourse  with  our 
houses,  and  may  become  the  introducer  of  many  kinds  of  lodgers. 
These  lodgers  may  either  be  found  out,  or  cause  injury  at  once,  like 
gas ;  or  they  may,  without  betraying  their  presence  in  any  way, 
become  enemies,  or  associate  themselves  with  other  injurious  ele- 
ments, and  increase  their  activity.  The  evil  resulting  therefrom 
continues  till  the  store  of  these  creatures  of  the  ground-air  are  con- 
sumed. Our  senses  may  remain  unaware  of  noxious  things  which 
we  take  in,  in  one  shape  or  another,  through,  air,  water,  or  food. 

''We  took  rather  a  short-sighted  view  all  the  while,  when  we  be- 
lieved that  the  nuisances  of  our  neighbors  could  only  poison  the  water 
in  our  pumps;  they  can  also  poison  the  ground-air  for  us,  and  I  see 
more  danger  in  this,  as  air  is  more  universally  present  and  more 
movable  than  water.  I  should  feel  quite  satisfied  if,  by  my  lectures, 
you  were  convinced  of  this  important  fact,  if  of  none  other.    *  *   * 

"  Hereby  the  question  about  the  origin  of  the  gas  is  certainly  not 
yet  answered,  and  would  have  been  left  equally  unsettled  if  we  had 
to  ask :  Whence  comes  all  the  carbonic  acid  which  is  found  in  the 
ground-water?  All  this  water  is  precipitated  from  the  atmosphere,  — 
fi'om  rain  or  snow.  In  entering  the  soil  as  meteoric  water,  its  amount 
of  carbonic  acid  is  exceedingly  small.  By  help  of  Bunsen's  analyti- 
cal tables  it  is  eas}''  to  calculate,  from  the  quantity  of  carlionic  acid 
in  the  atmosphere  and  the  absorbing  power  of  water  for  this  gas, 
that  one  pint  of  rain-water  at  the  average  temperature  and  baromet- 
rical pressure  can  contain  only  a  ver}^  small  fraction  of  a  grain  of 
carbonic  acid ;  and  this  has  been  proved  further  by  anal^'tical  experi- 
ments. But  this  analysis  of  the  pump-water  in  Munich,  which  was 
poorest  in  carbonic  acid,  showed  that  it  contained  on  an  average  1^ 
to  1.9  grains  of  free  gas.  The  ground-water  at  the  places  of  exami- 
nation stands  about  sixteen  feet  from  the  surface.  It  is  therefore 
evident,  that  the  meteoric  water,  which  is  the  sole  source  of  the 
ground-water,  must  more  than  centuple  its  original  amount  of  car- 
bonic acid  before  it  reaches  the  wells.  This  much  is  certain :  tliat 
the  source  of  the  carbonic  acid  must  be  sought  for  in  the  soil,  and 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  89 

for  this  reason  the  more  natural  supposition  is,  that  the  soil  yields 
the  gas  and  gives  it  to  the  water  and  to  the  air  simultaneously,  but 
naturally  with  greater  facility  and  in  greater  quantity  to  the  air  than 
to  the  water.  The  sources  of  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  soil  have  now 
to  undergo  a  stricter  investigation  ;  the  probability  is,  they  owe  their 
origin  to  organic  processes  in  tlie  soil." 

But,  furthermore,  the  habitation  of  any  new  dwelling  within  three 
months  after  its  erection,  though  it  be  purified  by  fire  in  eacli  room 
and  in  the  cellar,  should  be  forbidden,  as  the  enormous  quantity  of 
moisture  which  new  walls,  etc.,  contain  cannot  evaporate  before  that 
time,  and  during  its  presence  renders  such  dwellings  dangerously 
unhealthy. 

It  having  been  clearly  demonstrated,  that  the  natural  ventilation  of 
buildings  by  windows,  chimneys,  and  other  vents  is  altogether  insuffi- 
cient to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  human  body,  an  artificial  system 
must  be  prescribed,  whereby  the  necessar}'  quantity  of  pure  air  can  be 
brought  into  every  room  of  each  house  and  the  impure  air  constantly 
expelled.  The  revolving  hot  and  cold  air  furnace  accomplishes  this 
<jliject,  and  ought,  therefore,  to  be  required  for  all  large  cities  by  the 
general  building-law. 

All  buildings  should  be  inspected  semi-annually  by  the  official 
architectural  and  sanitary  commissioners,  both  in  regard  to  their 
safety  and  their  healthfulness,  and  the  result  published  and  reported  ; 
the  report  to  specify  all  particulars,  and  to  state  tlie  number  of  in- 
mates, so  that  the  overcrowding  of  houses  and  rooms,  which  makes 
proper  ventilation  impossible,  and  spreads  diseases  and  crimes  in  so 
many  portions  of  our  large  cities,  may  be  effectively  prevented. 

In  the  erection  of  high  buildings  in  cities,  with  many  large  win- 
•dows  of  plate  and  other  glass,  external  shades  above  the  window- 
tops  should  be  provided,  to  prevent  as  far  as  practicable  the  radia- 
tion and  reflection  of  the  solar  rays,  and  avoid  the  increase  of  heat 
that  will  add  several  degrees  to  the  natural  warmth  of  summer.  It 
has  been  conjectured,  though  perhaps  without  sufficient  grounds,  that 
an  extensive  refraction  of  the  solar  rays  from  plate-glass  in  midsum- 
mer might  affect  the  regularity  of  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  electi'o- 
magnetic  tides,  and  increase  the  formation  of  carbonic  acid  gas  in  the 
air  of  a  badly  ventilated  city;  but  whether  these  injurious  effects 
arise  from  this  cause  or  not,  the  fact  that  it  increases  the  natural 


90  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

heat  of  the  chmate  in  summer,  is  injurious  to  the  e^'es,  and  induces 
sunstrokes,  should  arrest  the  attention  of  the  legislator. 

The  almost  total  absence  of  smoke-consumers  in  the  factories, 
distilleries,  breweries,  and  furnaces  used  in  cities  is  another  source 
of  injury  and  annoyance  to  the  inhabitants,  causing  the  escape  of 
large  volumes  of  foul  gases,  and  enveloping  the  place  with  soot  and 
foul  odors.  The  manufacturers  using  coal  should  be  required  to 
provide  the  common  inventions  for  burning  the  carbonaceous  par- 
ticles that  now  escape  from  their  furnace  fires,  and  as  much  of  the 
smoke  as  may  be  practicable,  whereby  they  will  economize  fuel  and 
promote  the  health  and  cleanliness  of  the  citizens. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PERSONAL   CLEANLINESS. 

The  air  cannot  be  kept  pure  and  safe  if  impure  bodies  fill  it  con- 
stantly with  foul  exhalations.  Impurity  is  as  well  the  cause  as  the 
effect  of  disease  and  contagion.  Hence  personal  uncleanliness  is  not 
merely  an  offence  to  the  senses,  but  a  bodily  injury ;  and  purity  of 
body  becomes  an  indispensable  requisite  in  large  cities,  where  the 
bodies  of  men  constantly  jostle  against  each  other,  and  the  exhala- 
tions therefrom  are  so  extensive. 

Nothing  will  tend  so  much  to  promote  personal  cleanliness  as  the 
provision  of  pure  air.  Purity  of  one  kind  will  excite  a  desire  for 
purity  in  all  forms.  Properly  laid  out  cities  and  well-constructed 
houses  may  therefore  be  supposed,  of  themselves,  to  secure  the  neces- 
sary personal  cleanlinesss.  But  the  establishment  of  baths  in  every 
house,  and  on  every  floor  of  a  house  where  they  are  built  for  the  hab- 
itation of  more  than  one  family,  as  well  as  the  baths  to  be  constructed 
for  public  use  in  every  fourth  square  of  a  city,  will  tend  still  further 
to  secure  this  necessary  requisite  of  physical  and  moral  health,  and 
make  special  legislation  on  the  subject  superfluous.  I  may  mention, 
incidentally,  that  bathing  in  water  also  induces  a  desire  to  drink  water, 
and  is  thus  a  valuable  agent  in  extirpating  thirst  for  alcoholic  drinks. 


PUBLIC    HYGIKXE.  91 

On  the  other  hand,  pure  air  can  be  enjoyed  only  by  those  persons  who 
preserve  their  own  personal  cleanliness,  and  secure  the  most  thorough 
ventilation  of  their  workshops,  offices,  and  dwellings.  Heat,  light, 
and  electricit}'  can  be  enjoyed  perfectly  only  b}'  those  who  inhale  pure 
air,  which  gives  man  heat  and  strength  from  the  oxygen  consumed 
through  his  lungs,  renewing  his  animal  heat  and  power  every  instant 
of  his  life.  For  air  is  truly  the  chief  nourisher  in  life's  feast,  the 
elemental  supply  that  enables  man  to  move  and  execute  the  functions 
and  faculties  of  mind  and  body.  Hence  the  imperious  duty  of  the 
State  to  provide  for  the  preservation  of  the  purity  of  the  air  at  any 
cost,  as  the  element  of  prime  necessity,  absolutely  indispensable  to 
the  happiness,  health,  and  life  of  its  citizens  every  moment  of  their 
existence. 


CHAP  TEE    VIT. 

LAYING   OUT   OF   COUNTIES   AND   TOWNSHIPS. 

Even  the  agricultural  districts,  where  men  live  so  far  apart  that 
the  injurious  influence  of  one  body  upon  the  other  through  the  air  is 
difficult  of  ascertainment,  demand,  under  the  guidance  of  modern 
sanitary  science,  some  general  laws  whereby  to  secure  each  citizen  of 
those  districts  immunity  from  harm,  and  the  inhabitants  of  cities 
protection  against  the  miasmatic  poisons  in  the  currents  of  air  swept 
along  from  such  districts  by  the  winds. 

Each  county  should,  above  all,  have  a  complete  system  of  drainage 
to  purify  and  fertilize  the  soil,  which,  in  the  extensive  districts  of  the 
country,  is  of  the  same  relative  importance  as  the  purification  of  air 
is  in  the  cities,  and  so  arranged  as  to  make  the  drain-water  also 
useful  in  the  drier  parts  of  the  district  for  purposes  of  irrigation. 

Each  county  should  next  arrange  a  sufficient  system  of  forest 
parks,  or  wooded  lands,  whereby  to  purify  the  air  and  water,  and 
extend  to  their  soil  that  protection  which  causes  the  tree-covered 
oasis  to  bloom  forth  in  perrennial  beaut}',  furnishing  water,  vegeta- 
tion, and  shade  to  the  weary  traveller  in  the  midst  of  the  desolation 
of  Sahara.  For  the  influence  of  such  parks,  with  their  arboreal 
ventilation,  extends  not  only  to  the  health  of  the  farmer,  but  also  to 


92  LIBERTY    AND    LAW 

the  productiveness  of  tlie  soil.  Its  sure  and  immediate  operation 
in  this  respect  has  been  very  effectively  illustrated  on  our  Western 
plains,  where,  by  the  judicious  planting  of  trees,  vast  districts  have 
been  reclaimed  for  agriculture  that  were  formerly  considered  irre- 
deemably unproductive.  And  as  the  waters  of  the  Alps  have  brought 
under  cultivation  the  once  arid  plains  of  Northern  Italy,  directed 
thither  by  skilful  engineering,  so  might  the  heavy  snows  and  rains 
that  fall  in  the  Sierra  Madre,  instead  of  being  allowed  to  swell  the 
floods  of  the  Missouri,  and  of  the  other  great  rivers  south  of  its 
source,  and  bring  destruction  to  their  rich  bottom-lands,  be  used  to 
assist  in  irrigating  the  vast  barren  districts  that  extend  from  the 
mountains  eastwardly.  Combined  with  the  influence  of  the  trees 
now  being  planted  on  those  plains,  the  waters  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, directed  by  science  to  effect  irrigation,  would  cause  them  to 
bloom  forth  into  a  paradise  of  vegetation  as  if  by  magic. 

To  obtain  this  necessary  arboreal  ventilation  and  protection  for 
every  part  of  the  country,  a  public  park  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  should  be  laid  out  in  each  section  of  six  hundred  and  forty 
acres  of  land,  and  each  road  in  the  county-  should  be  laid  out 
with  a  double  row  of  trees  on  each  side,  the  supervision  of  which 
might  be  assigned  to  the  agricultural  schools  of  each  count3\  The 
parks  could  be  stocked  with  all  kinds  of  singing  and  other  birds 
that  protect  the  trees,  gardens,  and  fields  against  insects  and  vermin. 
The  soil  of  the  parks  could  also  be  sown  with  grass,  and  various 
kinds  of  grazing  animals  be  admitted  to  lend  additional  charms  to  the 
landscape. 

If  at  all  possible,  —  and  a  judicious  system  of  canals  in  every  State 
would  make  such  a  contrivance  quite  practicable, — each  county 
should  also  be  provided  with  a  suflScient  sheet  of  water,  stocked  with 
various  pi'oductive  and  healthy  fishes,  to  furnish  food  to  the  inhabit- 
ants and  purify  the  water.  These  artificial  or  natural  lakes  would 
add  materially  to  the  health  of  the  neighborliood,  by  moistening  the 
air  and  absorbing  on  its  part  the  impurities  of  the  atmosphere. 

Such  a  system  of  parks,  trees,  and  lakes  would  clotlie  the  whole 
landscape  with  rare  beauty,  and  cause  it  to  breathe  forth  sweetness, 
fragrance,  and  health.  Nor  should  the  sj'stem  be  confined  to  the 
counties.  Besides  these  count}'  parks,  it  would  be  recomraendable 
to  set  aside  in  the  several  States,  wherever  it  is  practicable,  a  more 
extensive  tract  of  forest  grounds,  such  as  is  now  proposed  for  the 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  93 

State  of  New  York  in  the  Adirondacks,  with  their  more  than  eight 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  a  magnifleent  forest,  that  secures  to  the 
beautiful  Hudson  its  perennial  flow  of  waters,  and  sweetens  every 
current  of  air  that  sweeps  over  it,  and  such  as  Congress  has  secured 
in  the  magnificent  park  of  the  Yosemite  Valley,  for  the  common  re- 
creation and  enjoyment  of  the  American  people. 

Congress  should  also  grant  lands  for  State  parks,  one  or  more  in 
number,  to  the  new  States  and  to  the  Territories,  for  the  use  of  the 
people  of  each  State  and  Territory  forever.  Congress  should  also 
grant  to  the  same  States  and  Territories,  for  tlie  use  of  tlie  agricul- 
tural schools,  three  by  three  sections  of  land  in  one  tract  in  each 
county  for  the  establislmient,  use,  and  support  of  agricultural,  min- 
ing, mechanical,  and  other  schools,  to  be  devoted  to  such  purposes 
forever.  Tliere  should  also  be  reserved  six  sections  of  land  in  each 
township  of  thirty-six  sections  for  the  support  of  the  other  schools, 
colleges,  and  universities  proposed  to  be  established  in  this  work,  so 
that  a  permanent  endowment  may  be  created  for  public  education  for 
all  time  to  come. 

By  such  a  system  of  parks,  etc.,  —  more  especially  if  it  is  accom- 
panied by  the  planting  of  the  eucalyptus,  the  myrtle,  and  other  odorous 
flowers  in  swampy  localities,  trees  and  flowers  that  destroy  by  their 
absorption  of  malarious  and  carbonic  acid  gases,  and  remove  by  their 
exhalations  of  oxygen,  all  the  impurities  of  the  air, — the  malarious 
diseases,  now  famiUar  to  agricultural  districts,  will  be  gradually  sub- 
dued, a  greater  evenness  of  temperature  gradually  secured,  and  all 
nature  placed  under  additional  control  and  direction  by  the  science 
and  art  of  man. 

Grand  forest  parks  will  break  the  violence  of  storms,  inhale  as  it 
were  the  surcharge  of  electricity  from  the  clouds  and  the  impurities 
of  the  air,  and  while  feeding  on  these  exhalations  and  those  of  the 
water,  restore  to  all  forms  of  life  the  pure  oxygen  for  vitality.  By 
means  of  this  arboreal  and  floral  ventilation  and  purification  of  the 
air  of  rural  districts,  the  inhabitants  of  all  cities  near  them  will  be 
furnished  with  pure,  invigorating  air,  while  the  aspect  of  all  the  fresh 
life  of  the  trees,  plants,  and  water  will  irradiate  in  every  direction 
new  sensations  of  pleasure,  of  enjoyment,  and  of  health. 

The  comparatively  new  country  composing  our  republic  is  still 
only  sparsely  populated,  and  amply  large  enough  to  fui-iiish  its  pres- 
ent and  future  inhabitants,  for  many  years  to  come,  with  room  in  all 


94  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

villages,  cities,  townships,  and  counties  for  the  introduction  of  all 
sanitary'  safeguards  herein  proposed  for  the  preservation  of  the  purity 
of  the  air,  the  food,  and  drinks  consumed  by  the  people,  and  to  fur- 
nish them  the  means  for  recreation,  amusement,  and  physical  de- 
velopment. 


CHAPTER    Vin. 

PURE   FOOD   AND   DRINK. 

To  i^rovide,  furthermore,  all  other  kinds  of  food  and  drink  for 
the  human  body  in  their  natural  condition  of  healthful  purit}',  the 
legislative  power  in  each  State  must  regulate  — 

1.  The  sale  of  all  food  and  drinks  consumed  by  man,  so  as  to 
secure  them  to  the  consumer  in  their  unadulterated  purity. 

2.  The  preservation  of  the  health  of  all  animals,  birds,  and  fishes, 
and  the  soundness  of  all  vegetables  consumed  by  man. 

In  the  primitive  condition  of  man,  each  individual  furnished  himself 
his  own  food  and  drink,  and  legislation  to  secure  men  from  adultera- 
tion of  the  articles  of  diet  was  therefore  unnecessary.  But  as  men 
began  to  divide  occupations  and  professions  among  each  other,  it 
became  necessary  that  measures  should  be  adopted  to  secure  to  the 
purchasers  the  purity  of  their  food  and  drinks.  The  practice  of  adul- 
terating the  various  articles  used  by  men  for  consumption  has  indeed 
been  carried  to  such  a  point,  and  is  productive  of  such  disastrous 
results  in  the  spread  of  disease  and  crime,  that  the  most  stringent 
legislation  has  become  necessary. 

In  every  community,  therefore,  a  board  of  inspectors,  composed 
of  men  sufficiently  educated  in  the  necessary  chemical  and  other 
studies  to  qualify  them  for  the  office,  should  be  appointed,  and 
intrusted  with  full  power  to  supervise  all  markets  and  other  places 
where  those  articles  are  exposed  for  sale ;  to  supervise  all  slaughter- 
houses, and  examine  into  the  healthy  condition  of  all  animals 
intended  for  consumption,  and  also  into  the  processes  of  fattening 
and  feeding  the  animals,  so  that  all  vicious  methods  of  using  distil- 
lery-swill, malt-mash,  still-slop,  and  other  deleterious  diet  may  be 
aboUshed.     They  should  also  report  the  manner  in  which  the  animals 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  ''95 

are  brought  to  market,  unci  see  that  they  do  not  become  diseased  by 
being  crowded  into  unventilated  cars,  or  by  being  driven  beyond 
their  strength,  or  by  cruel  treatment,  or  deprivation  of  food  and 
drink  on  the  way.  Few  persons  have  any  notion  of  the  enormous 
proportion  of  diseased  meat  brouglit  to  market  under  the  present 
loose  system,  where  the  owner  of  the  cattle  conspires  with  the  rail- 
road people  to  crush  as  many  sheep  or  cattle  into  a  close  car  as  the 
space  will  allow,  without  suffocation. 

These  commissioners  should  also  prepare  game-laws,  and  laws 
regulating  the  introduction  of  productive  and  healthy  fish  into  the 
different  rivers,  canals,  and  lakes  of  the  State. 

They  should  also  have  power  to  inspect  all  liquors,  wines,  milk, 
alcoholic  and  other  drinks  consumed  by  the  people,  before  they 
are  offered  for  sale,  at  such  times  as  may  be  deemed  necessary,  to 
prevent  the  poisoning  or  adulteration  of  drinks ;  and  likewise  to 
inspect  all  drugs  and  medicines,  so  that  none  but  pure  articles  may 
be  put  up  for  sale. 

They  should  also  provide  pure  vaccine  matter  in  proper  quantities  ; 
examine  wells  and  water- works,  and  report  on  the  condition  of  the 
water,  after  submitting  it  to  all  usual  tests. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

It  may  appear  to  many,  at  first  glance,  rather  too  critical  that  I 
should  enter  into  these  minute  details  of  sanitary  regulations  in  a 
book  on  law  and  government.  Let  any  one  go  to  the  Five  Points, 
or  along  Baxter  Street,  of  New  York,  and  scent  the  vicious  gases 
that  arise  from  every  house  and  alley,  filling  the  streets  with 
poisonous  odors  and  exhalations,  and  he  may  realize  how  utterly 
futile  must  be  every  effort  to  reclaim  the  human  race,  and  lift  up 
those  human  wrecks  from  their  debasing  physical  condition,  unless 
such  measures  as  I  have  proposed  are  adopted  and  carried  out  in 
their  minutest  details.  Let  him  enter  their  terrible  tenement-houses, 
and  note  the  haggard  faces,  drooping  bodies,  and  eyes  that  glisten 


96  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

with  vice  in  proportion  as  they  have  drawn  in  the  reflection  of  vice 
and  impurity  on  every  side  in  these  miserable  rooms!  Let  him  go 
next  into  the  wealtliier  parts  of  the  city,  and  smell  through  every 
water-pipe  of  the  closet,  the  bath-room,  and  the  wash-stand  the  same 
diseased  smells  of  Five  Points  and  Baxter  Street;  breathe  in  every 
breath  of  air  the  same  foul,  curse-laden  atmosphere,  and  he  may 
realize  the  claim  of  one  human  being  to  be  protected  against  the 
poisonous  exhalations  of  another!  Or  let  him  enter  our  street-cars, 
our  coaches,  our  railroad  cars,  with  their  closed  windows  shutting 
out  the  pure  air  of  God,  and  forcing  rank  poison  down  his  lungs ! 

The  new  civilization  cannot  come  or  show  itself  except  through 
healthy  bodies,  ruled  by  healthy  minds;  and  we  cannot  get'  health 
except  through  purity.  Purity  of  air,  of  food,  and  of  drinks  will 
give  us  that  pliysical  health  which,  both  strengthened  by  and  sup- 
porting mental  and  moral  purity,  can  alone  raise  our  race  to  the  high 
perfection  which  lies  within  its  reach.  The  impurity  of  food  and  air 
has  so  accustomed  men  to  impurities  of  all  kinds,  that  chastity  has 
almost  become  a  reproach,  and  men  plunge  into  vice  as  naturally  as 
into  a  foul-scenting  atmosphere,  or  as  they  eat  the  diseased  meats 
and  the  decayed  vegetables  sold  in  the  market-places. 

It  is  to  remedy  this  state  of  things  in  its  first  and  most  immediate 
appearance,  that  the  inauguration  of  such  a  sanitary  system  as  I  have 
described  becomes  the  first  duty  of  the  law-maker.  I  well  know 
that  of  recent  years  steps  have  been  taken  to  secure  this  object. 
Nay,  even  a  national  public  health  association  has  been  organized  to 
effect  some  of  the  measures  herein  proposed.  But  all  these  efforts 
have  been  merely  sporadic  and  partial ;  and  even  in  Germany,  where, 
during  the  past  few  years,  the  science  of  public  hygiene  has  at  last 
been  recognized  as  entering  into  one  of  the  most  needful  depart- 
ments of  State  government,  and  been  cultivated  to  an  extent  beyond 
that  of  any  other  country,  a  thorough  and  sweeping  reformation  has 
not  yet  been  effected. 

An  amateur  national  health  society  is  not  what  we  need,  but  a 
sanitary  department  in  each  State  government  especially  for  this 
branch  of  the  public  service,  which  should  collect  all  the  statistics 
that  are  still  wanting  in  relation  to  the  laws  governing  the  dissem- 
ination of  diseases  and  epidemics,  and  the  hygienic  and  sanitary 
measures  whereby  their  propagation  can  be  arrested ;  showing  also 
the  influence  of  all  the  various  kinds  of  food  and  drinks,  occupations, 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  97 

recreations,  and  habits  of  life  upon  the  happiness,  civilization,  and 
health  of  the  people,  with  ample  powers  to  enforce  all  the  regulations- 
necessary  to  carry  out  its  beneficent  objects.  • 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  sanitary  measures  recommended 
in  this  work  would  not  only  check  disease  and  crime,  eradicate  hered- 
itary ailments  and  infirmities,  but  would  also  beautify,  adorn,  and 
utilize  nature  everywhere.  Let  any  one  picture  to  himself  a  city 
such  as  I  have  described,  with  every  fourth  square  a  public  park, 
with  forest  shade-trees,  public  baths,  and  fountains  of  pure  water 
for  drinking;  every  fourth  street  a  grand,  airy,  clean,  and  shaded 
boulevard,  having  double  rows  of  shade-trees  on  each  side  and  in 
the  centre,  and  all  the  other  streets  with  single  rows  of  shade-trees 
on  each  side,  —  the  houses  exhaling  freshness  and  cleanliness,  the 
impure  and  miasmatic  gases  and  vapors  being  carried  away  and  dis- 
infected by  the  currents  of  fresh  air  continually  rising  as  it  becomes 
rarefied, — and  then  look  at  our  present  cities,  with  their  utter  want 
of  arboreal  beauty  or  cleanliness,  their  narrow  streets,  their  blind 
alleys,  their  smoking  furnace-stacks,  and  their  ill-constructed  houses, 
emitting  the  most  deadly  poison  every  morning,  when  the  surcharge 
accumulated  during  the  night  seeks  egress!  Life  can  be  made  very 
beautiful,  but  it  is  the  law  that  must  furnish  the  first  condition,  by 
compelling  the  selfishness  of  man  to  yield  up  ample  spaces  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth  for  arboreal  ventilation  and  air  purification,  so 
necessary  to  preserve  the  health,  happiness,  and  strength  of  the 
people. 

One  would  suppose,  from  the  way  in  which  our  cities  and  villages 
are  laid  out  and  our  houses  are  built,  that  there  is  not  a  sufficient 
supply  of  land  in  the  republic  to  furnish  the  inhabitants  room  to  draw 
one  breath  of  pure  air.  When  tliieving  despots  had  full  sway,  when 
tribes,  races,  and  nations  were  continually  at  war  with  each  other,  the 
cities  were  diminished  in  extent  as  much  as  possible,  and  surrounded 
by  fortified  walls ;  but  now  the  improvements  in  the  implements  of 
war  render  such  obstructions  of  no  avail  against  well-appointed 
armies,  and  the  fate  of  nations  is  determined  by  conflicts  in  the 
open  field.  It  will,  I  hope,  no  longer  be  necessary  to  crowd  the 
inhabitants  of  cities  and  villages  within  narrow  limits  and  massive 
fortifications  to  protect  them  and  their  property  from  marauding  and 
plundering  emperors,  despots,  kings,  dukes,  or  other  miHtary  rob- 
bers.    I  believe  that  a  new  era   is    dawning  upon    the   enlightened 


98  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 

nations  of  the  world,  an  era  of  Liberty  and  Law,  united  in  their  syn- 
thesis of  political  justice,  wherein  States  may  be  founded  and  cities 
built  upon  rational  principles  of  sanitary  science,  and  the  inherent 
right  of  each  citizen  to  pure  air,  pure  food,  pure  drinks,  and  healthy 
recreation  will  be  protected  and  enforced  by  the  laws  of  each  State 
in  all  federative  republics. 

It  has  been  objected  that  these  necessary  sanitary  improvements 
will  be  very  expensive.  Can  we  not  afford  to  be  healthy,  pure,  and 
happy,  when  all  the  means  to  become  so  are,  as  it  were,  in  our  own 
hands?  Such  parsimony,  that  would  rob  the  people  of  all  that  is  val- 
uable in  life  on  the  score  of  economy,  is  fitly  coupled  with  that 
prodigality  which  has  led  Congress  to  give  away  to  laih-oud  monop- 
olies over  two  hundred  million  acres  of  laud  belonging  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States. 

The  great  difficulty  seems  to  be,  that  while  this  public  demand  for 
sanitary  legislation  is  split  up  upon  numberless  subjects,  my  sanitary 
code  embraces  them  all.  The  city  resident  clamors  for  ventilation  of 
the  dwelling-houses,  for  clean  streets  and  a  good  sewerage  system,  and 
in  so  far  agrees  with  me ;  but  is  amazed  when  I  propose  to  apply  the 
same  principles  of  sanitary  laws  to  the  open  country,  by  means  of 
forests  and  irrigation,  by  cleansing  the  air,  controlling  the  weather, 
and  purifying  the  soil.  This  he  considers  visionary,  or,  at  any  rate, 
despotic.  The  farmer,  on  the  other  hand,  cannot  reconcile  it  with  his 
notions  of  individual  freedom,  that  the  law  should  prescribe  certain 
rules  for  the  building  of  houses  in  the  cities,  so  that  they  ma3'  not 
engender  and  spread  diseases.  Hence  a  systematic  sanitary  code, 
like  the  one  I  have  suggested,  appears  oppressive.  The  preservation 
of  the  public  health  and  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is  looked  upon  as 
a  matter  that  should  be  left  to  individual  effort,  although  the  experi- 
ence of  thousands  of  years  has  shown  conclusively  that  any  general 
result  can  be  obtained  only  by  united  action.  Besides,  each  person 
thinks  only  of  his  immediate  self-interest.  If  he  owns  a  valuable 
forest,  he  is  not  likely  to  be  restrained  from  cutting  it  down  and  sell- 
ing the  lumber  b}'  fears  that  future  generations  will  suffer  from  the 
effects  of  his  acts ;  and  even  the  farmers  of  our  prairie  lands  are  too 
careless  or  parsimonious  to  plant  trees,  and  will  not  do  so  unless  they 
can  see  immediate  results  and  benefits.  Even  positive  and  great  suf- 
fering will  not  prevent  the  destruction  of,  or  induce  the  planting  of 
new  forests.     We  complain  about  grasshoppers,  and  the  devastations 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  99 

•which  they  bring  upon  our  treeless  lands  of  the  West,  as  the  locusts 
devoured  the  grain  crops  of  Eg^-pt  after  the  fruitful  lands  east  of  the 
Nile  had  been  changed  into  deserts  by  wanton  destruction  of  Syrian 
forests,  and  yet  we  do  our  best  to  multiply  the  insects  by  devastating 
our  forests. 

Our  governors  set  days  apart  for  general  prayers,  supplicating  God 
that  we  maybe  delivered  of  this  plague  ;  and  whilst  some  of  us  follow 
the  invitation,  and  petition  the  Almighty  to  destroy  the  insects  that 
threaten  starvation  to  our  fellow-men  in  the  West,  others  employ  the 
same  day  to  slaughter  the  birds  that  would  destroy  the  insect  hordes, 
without  petition  to  Divine  Providence. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  prairie-hens,  sage-hens,  quail,  snipe, 
and  wild  birds  are  shot  every  season  for  the  mere  sport  of  the  thing, 
and  these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  birds  would  feed  upon  millions 
of  the  insects  we  pray  to  be  delivered  of. 

We  speak  about  starvation,  lamenting  the  days  when  from  his  log 
house  the  farmer  could  shoot  the  game  he  needed  for  his  day's  dinner ; 
and  whilst  we  pra}'  that  we  may  be  delivered  from  famine,  we  do  our 
best  to  provoke  it  b}^  permitting  the  useless  kiUing  of  birds,  ducks, 
geese,  deer,  and  buffalo,  and  allowing  the  numberless  streams  that 
water  our  country  to  diminish  and  stagnate  from  want  of  arbo- 
real protection,  instead  of  exerting  our  energy  and  invention  to  en- 
large and  purify  their  waters  and  fill  them  with  life-supporting  fish. 
For,  beneficial  as  has  been  the  recently  estabhshed  system  of  intro- 
ducing new  fish  into  our  countless  rivers,  that  system  must  break  down 
of  itself  if  the  rivers  are  allowed  to  run  dry  from  want  of  suflScient 
arboreal  protection. 

When  we  reflect  upon  this  pitiless  war  against  nature  and  man's 
highest  hygienic  interest,  we  feel  almost  tempted  to  wish  back  the 
times  of  old  Persian  tradition,  when  the  followers  of  Ormuzd,  the 
God  of  Light,  carried  on  their  warfare  against  Ahrimaii,  the  God  of 
Darkness.  For  it  is  said  of  them  that  when  they  took  the  vow  that 
bound  them  to  the  service  of  Ormuzd,  they  engaged  themselves  to 
battle  untiringly  against  all  the  works  of  darkness  upon  the  earth. 
Eyery  obstruction  to  its  fertility  and  beauty  must  be  removed. 
Where  death-exhaling  swamps  met  their  eyes,  they  planted  myrtle 
and  gum  trees  to  convert  them  into  vitalized  arable  lands.  Where 
they  found  weeds  and  poisonous  plants  the}^  plucked  them  out,  and 
thereby  purified  the  soil  as  well  as  the  air  and  the  watercourses.     In 


100  LIBERTY    AND    LAW 

short,  they  tried  to  cultivate  desert  districts  as  laljoriously  as  we  try 
to  turn  our  fertile  regions  into  unproductive  lands.  In  other  lands, 
shelter  and  protection  are  freely  offered  to  the  sweet-voiced  and  mer- 
rilv  chirping  birds  that  feed  upon  the  insects  which  destro}^  the 
farmer's  corn  ;  we  do  our  best  to  exterminate  them.  Now,  stringent 
game-laws,  combined  with  the  estabhshment  of  a  one-hundred-and- 
sixty-acre  park  in  eveiy  section  of  land,  would  afford  these  most 
useful  friends  of  the  farmer  and  sweetest  companions  of  man  abun- 
dance of  shelter.  Let  us,  then,  have  such  parks,  with  beautiful  trees^ 
small  droves  of  mild-e^'ed  deer,  flocks  of  singing  and  other  birds» 
and  ozone-exhaling  plants,  —  such  as  the  clove,  the  lavender,  mint, 
fennel,  narcissus,  the  lemon-tree,  the  heliotrope,  the  hyacinth,  and  the 
mignonette,  —  and  each  inhabitant  of  that  section  will  have  the  enjoy- 
ment of  as  fine  a  park  as  the  proudest  English  lord  can  boast  of. 
Beauty,  health,  and  econom}'  will  go  hand-in-hand  together  to  pro- 
mote a  higher  enjoyment  of  man's  life. 

It  is  but  just  to  say,  however,  that  not  all  our  States  are  equally 
vandals  in  the  destruction  of  the  productiveness  of  the  soil.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  State  of  Nebraska,  which  has  set  apart  one  day  of 
the  3'ear,  called  "  arbor  day,"  especially  for  the  planting  of  trees,  — 
offering  a  handsome  premium  in  money  to  the  farmer  who  on  that 
day  sets  out  the  greatest  number  of  trees.  Then  there  is  the  State 
of  Kansas,  which  also  offers  a  bounty  to  those  farmers  who  grow 
and  cultivate  forest  trees  for  a  specified  number  of  3'ears.  Colorado- 
has  also  done  already  some  small  things  in  the  way  of  converting 
unproductive  into  fruitful  lands  b}^  means  of  irrigation.  And  lest 
I  should  be  accused  of  exaggerating  the  dangers  to  which  I  have 
referred,  I  beg  leave  to  quote  a  few  passages  from  a  report  made  by 
Cyrus  Thomas,  president  of  the  Normal  Institution  of  Illinois  and 
member  of  the  United  States  Entomological  Commission,  to  Dr.  Hay- 
den,  of  the  world-i*enowned  Colorado  Survey  Commission.  After 
dwelling  upon  the  necessity  of  increasing  our  watercourses,  espe- 
ciall}-  in  the  Western  plains,  he  says  :  — 

"This  discussion  touches  upon  a  great  underlying  fact,  upon 
which  the  principle  here  involved  depends.  It  is,  that  the  entire 
inhabited  world  is  growing  dr^'er;  that  already  in  our  own  country 
this  is  becoming  evident,  in  spite  of  the  opinions  and  assertions  to 
the  contrar3\  Man,  b}^  his  foil}',  is  assisting  largely  in  this  work 
of   lessening    the  argricultural  value  of   the  farming  lands  of   this 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  101 

oountiy  and  of  the  world.  A  recent  article  in  the  Science  Monthly  sets 
forth  vividly  the  effects  of  thus  denuding  the  land  of  forests,  showing 
that  the  vast  areas  on  the  eastern  continent,  once  as  fertile  as  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  are  now  barren  and  arid,  sending  forth  its  swarms 
of  hungry  locusts  to  prey  upon  the  remaining  fertile  spots.  But 
the  destruction  of  timber  is  not  the  only  cause  of  this  change :  the 
draining  of  marshes,  ponds,  and  lakes,  exposing  to  the  sun  the 
myriads  of  little  rills  to  be  dried  up,  thus  contracting  the  evaporating 
or  water-surface,  has  been  one  important  factor  in  producing  the 
result  we  see.  Suppose  that  Congress  and  the  Minnesota  Legisla- 
ture, not  willing  to  sanction  the  continuance  of  the  thousands  of 
lakes  in  Minnesota,  as  they  require  the  roads  to  bend,  bridges  to  be 
made,  or  barriers  maintained,  should  go  to  work  and  drain  them,  what 
would  be  the  effect?  It  would  be  but  a  short  time  before  the  western 
part  of  that  State,  the  south-eastern  part  of  Dakota,  and  the  northern 
portion  of  Iowa  would  be  as  arid  as  these  "Western  plains.  Illinois 
and  other  Western  States  are  already  beginning  to  feel  the  effect  of 
this  unwise  policy  of  draining  all  our  swamps  and  confining  the  water 
to  its  narrowest  limits ;  the  rainfall  is  more  uneven,  and  the  sub- 
stratum once  reached  by  shallow  wells  is  sinking  lower. 

"  The  true  method  is  to  sta}'  this  foolish  policy,  protect  little  rills 
with  bordering  shrubbery,  expand  as  much  as  possible  the  water- 
surface,  so  as  to  increase  the  evaporation.  The  more  and  the  larger 
the  lakes  and  reservoirs  we  can  make  on  these  plains,  the  better.  The 
cost  is  the  great,  the  only  real  difficulty  in  the  way. 

"Allow  me  to  say,  in  closing,  that  I  have  no  axe  to  grind  in  this 
matter,  my  object  being  to  call  attention  to  this  important  subject, 
which  Congress  must  sooner  or  later  take  hold  of.  If  some  better 
or  more  feasible  plan  can  be  suggested,  I  shall  be  glad  of  it ;  but 
certainly  Mr.  Elliott  fails  to  meet  the  demand.  It  is  less  expensive, 
it  is  true,  but  then  it  entirely  fails  to  accomplish  the  object  proposed, 
€ven  admitting  all  that  he  claims  for  it." 

There  is  not  a  sentence  in  this  that  I  cannot  fully  indoi'se.  These 
few  passages,  if  carefully  studied,  will  be  found  to  cuuLain  the  whole 
science  of  private  and  public  ventilation. 

■  Napoleon,  clear-sighted  on  this  as  on  every  practical  subject,  un- 
derstood the  importance  of  this  subject  of  forestry  quite  well,  when, 
in  1808,  he  prohibited  the  felling  of  timber  on  the  Rhine  ;  though  little 
dreaming  then  that  within  some  sixty-odd  years  Germany  would  reap 


102  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  benefit  of  his  measures  by  the  reannexation  of  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine. But  the  benefits  are  quite  visible  now,  just  as  the  benefits  of 
introducing  the  eucalyptus  trees  on  the  Algerian  plains  are  felt  by 
every  inhabitant  and  traveller,  and  just  as,  under  our  own  eyes,  we 
can  see  on  the  island  of  Santa  Cruz  the  doom  that  awaits  our  lands  if 
we  keep  on  in  our  work  of  eradicating  from  its  plains  the  noble  gar- 
dens of  God.  Twenty  years  ago  that  island,  covered  by  magnificent 
forests,  was  one  of  the  most  fertile  regions  of  the  globe;  to-day,, 
shorn  of  its  glory,  it  is  a  desert. 

As  Gen.  James  S.  Brisbin,  of  the  United  States  army,  who  has 
given  this  subject  great  attention,  expresses  it:  — 

"The  United  States  should  make  appropriations  and  foster  the 
replanting  of  forests.  Congress  should  enact  strong  laws  for  the 
protection  of  timber  on  the  public  domain,  and  we  should  have  a 
commissioner  of  forestry.  Overseers  of  roads  should  be  made  ta 
plant  trees  along  the  highways,  at  the  public  expense.  Railways 
should  be  compelled  by  law  to  plant  trees  along  the  whole  of  their 
lines,  on  either  side  of  the  track.  "We  cannot  in  one.  or  even  two 
generations,  undo  all  the  damage  that  has  been  done,  but  by  begin- 
ning at  once  we  may  still  be  able  to  avert  a  timber  famine  in  the 
United  States." 

Every  year  we  use  over  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  wooden 
ties  for  our  seventy-one  thousand  miles  of  railway,  and  these  ties 
must  be  relaid  every  seventh  year.  Our  locomotives  now  consume 
more  than  twenty  thousand  cords  of  wood  per  day,  and  this  con- 
sumption is  steadily  increasing. 

The  rail  fences,  which  our  farmers  will  still  erect  in  place  of  hedges^ 
consume  still  greater  quantities  of  w^ood.  Most  of  our  fences,  indeed 
nearly  all,  have  to  be  furnished  out  of  our  forests,  in  spite  of  the 
expense ;  for  we  have  to  pay  out  $98,000,000  every  year  to  repair  alt 
the  fences  in  the  United  States,  the  present  value  of  which  is  esti- 
mated at  the  enormous  sum  of  $1,800,000,000. 

To  furnish  all  this  wood  we  strip  every  year  more  than  eight 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  forest  lands  alone  in  the  three  States  of 
Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  Minnesota,  at  which  rate  all  of  their  for- 
ests will  be  swept  away  in  about  fifteen  years. 

In  the  whole  United  States  there  is  now  left  only  one  really  fine 
untouched  belt  of  timber:  thatwliich  covers  about  one-half  of  Wash- 
in  o-ton  Territory  and  one- third  of  Oregon  ;  and  even  that  belt,  with 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  103 

its  magnificent  yellow-fir  forests,  —  many  of  the  trees  reaching  a 
height  of  three  hundred  feet, — is  beginning  to  disap[)ear.  China 
and  Japan  have  already  made  inroads  upon  it,  and  within  less  than 
half  a  century  (should  the  present  destruction  continue)  it  will  be 
another  desert  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  slope. 

California  has  now  left  only  some  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
acres  of  her  grand  woodlands.  Happily,  however,  her  people  have 
already  awakened  to  a  knowledge  of  their  past  folly,  and  are  endeav- 
oring to  repair  it  as  much  as  possible  by  cultivating  the  eucalyptus 
tree,  the  health-giving  myrtle  of  Australia,  which  should  be  culti- 
vated over  every  section  of  our  country  south  of  36°  30'  north 
latitude,  and  especially  in  the  marshy  districts,  since  no  other  known 
tree  so  readily  absorbs  all  the  miasmas  of  the  atmosphere  aud 
breathes  tliem  out  again  purified,  as  pure  oxygen  and  magnetic 
oxygen,  or  ozone.  No  tree,  indeed,  is  better  adapted  for  our 
Southern  soil  and  climate  than  this  Australian  importation.  It 
grows  rapidly  in  any  mild  climate,  reaching  a  height  of  from  thirty 
to  fort}^  feet  in  ten  or  twelve  years,  is  beautifully  shaped,  and 
covered  in  spring  with  a  magnificent  crown  of  blossoms.  But  what 
is  of  infinitely  more  importance  is  its  medical  quality  as  an  infallible 
remedy  against  malarious  fevers.  Not  only  do  the  pulverized  leaves, 
taken  internally,  effect  a  speedy  fever-cure,  but  the  verj'  atmosphere 
exhaled  b}'  the  tree  operates  like  quinine.  It  absorbs  the  moisture 
of  swampy  lands  like  a  sponge,  and  purifies  the  air  from  all  malarious- 
matter.  About  one  hundred  years  ago  the  Jesuits  brought  it  tO' 
Europe,  and  planted  some  in  the  Roman  Campagna.  A  large  num- 
ber were  planted  on  the  lands  of  the  celebrated  cloister,  St.  Paul,  and; 
in  a  few  3'ears  all  signs  of  fever  had  disappeared.  Fifteen  years  ago- 
a  number  of  those  trees  were  planted  in  some  of  the  swampy  and 
feverish  districts  of  France,  with  the  same  result.  The  useless  and. 
death-spreading  swamps  are  now  blooming  forests  and  fruitful 
fields. 

In  the  East  the  destruction  of  timber  has  been  still  more  enormous.. 
New  York  State  has  lost  nearly  all  its  beautiful  maple,  beech,  pine, 
hemlock,  walnut,  and  hickory  forests,  so  that  now  only  the  Adiron- 
dack woods  and  a  portion  of  the  Catskill  forests  are  left  it ;  and  the 
Allegheny  Mountains  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  are  shorn  of  the 
magnificent  verdure  that,  like  a  woman's  hair,  so  adorned  the  beauty 


104  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

of  their  ranges  and  peaks,  that  tlieir  glory  has  spread  over  the  whole 
world. 

And   what   are  we  doing  to  stay  this  vandaUsm?     As   good   as 

nothing. 

Our  increase  of  forests  from  planting  is  less  than  one  million  acres 
annually ;  the  decrease,  from  all  causes,  is  over  eight  million  acres 
annually.  Chicago  alone  consumed  in  1871  the  wood  of  ten  thousand 
acres,  nearly,  for  fuel. 

This  fearful  waste  of  timber  is  still  further  increased  l)y  the  rav- 
ages of  fire.  In  the  decade  1860-70  over  twelve  millions  of  acres  of 
wood  were  burned  down  vjiJfnlly,  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  "  clear  " 
the  land  ;  and  thousands  of  square  miles  of  timber-land  are  destroyed 
almost  every  year  by  accidental  fires. 

In  consequence  of  this  immense  devastation  of  forests,  the  Poto- 
mac has  already  lost  a  quarter  of  the  volume  of  its  waters ;  the 
Hudson,  a  sixth ;  the  Connecticut  River,  in  former  times  quite  navi- 
gable, is  now  barely  a  rivulet ;  and  the  Oswegatchie,  emptying,  into  the 
St.  Lawrence  at  Ogdensburg,  New  York,  which  formerly  had  water- 
power  enough  to  run  one  hundred  mills,  now  barely  can  keep  ten  in 
operation  during  three-fourths  of  the  year.  Even  the  great  Western 
waters,  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri,  show  already  indications  of 
a  steady  decrease  of  the  volume  of  their  waters. 

But  the  trees  discharge  a  twofold  function  in  the  absorption  of 
water.  Wherever  the  soil  is  too  damp,  it  evaporates  its  superfluous 
water  throngh  the  trees  in  immense  quantities,  the  roots  drawing  up 
the  lumdity  of  the  soil  even  from  deep  springs,  and  sending  it 
througli  their  branches  and  leaves  to  sweeten  and  purify  the  air. 
When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  atmosphere  is  overladen  with  moisture, 
the  forests  suck  up  the  rain-mists,  and  in  this  way  greatly  check 
freshets  and  overflows  of  waters. 

This  explains  why,  in  woodless  regions,  long  seasons  of  drought 
are  suddenly  followed  by  violent  rainfalls,  such  as  caused  the  freshets 
that  some  years  ago  worked  fearful  destruction  in  the  river  valleys  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio. 

This  explains  also  why  damp  regions  require  forests  to  dry  them, 
whilst  dry  regions  need  woodlands  to  bring  them   the  moisture  for 
which  they  are  parching. 
i    The  same  trees  that  drain  the  swampy  lands  of  Illinois  would  assist 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  1^5 

in  irrigating  the  desert  plains  of  Colorado,  The  same  trees,  that 
would  in  ordinary  seasons  supply  the  Upper  Missouri  with  a  suffi- 
ciency of  water,  would  in  times  of  great  rains  or  snow-melting  pre- 
vent disastrous  freshets  and  overflows. 

I  have  confined  myself,  so  far,  mainly  to  the  vindication  of  my 
sanitary  scheme  in  its  application  to  the  open  country ;  more  espe- 
cially^ as  the  purification  of  the  country  must  act  with  equal  benefit 
upon  the  cities,  and  keep  them  free  from  the  malaria  which  is  now 
brought  to  them  by  the  winds,  and  increasing  the  foul  air  which  they 
generate  themselves.  But  the  main  reason  why  I  have  spoken  more 
minutely  of  sanitary  legislation  for  the  open  country  is,  that  its  ne- 
cessity for  the  cities  is  already  pretty  generally  conceded,  though  not 
nearly  to  the  extent  required.  Nor  will  a  sanitary  system  for  cities 
ever  effect  the  results  aimed  at  until  my  S3^stem  of  public  parks  and 
fountains  is  made  a  permanent  part  of  it.  Sewers  will  do  a  great 
deal  to  keep  the  soil  of  cities  free  from  disease-spreading  matter,  and 
ventilation  will  do  much  to  keep  the  dwellings  supplied  with  fresh 
air ;  but  without  a  sufficiency  of  trees,  neither  the  soil  nor  the  air  can 
ever  be  thoroughly  purified.  I  may  add  here  what  I  ii..\e  already 
suggested  in  referring  to  the  forest  parks  of  the  country :  that  great 
assistance  in  the  purification  of  the  air  can  be  derived  from  certain 
trees  and  flowers.  This  is  of  special  importance  to  the  inhabitants 
of  cities,  as  every  house  can  thus  be  constantly  purified  at  scarcely 
any  cost ;  while  at  the  same  time  that  the  lungs  inhale  with  delight 
tiie  fresh  and  electrified  atmosphere,  the  eye  will  be  charmed  with 
the  beauty  of  the  plants. 

But  there  is  still  another  branch  of  sanitar}^  legislation,  which  every 
year  becomes  more  important,  as  our  railroads  extend,  horse-cars  are 
introduced,  and  travel  consumes  more  of  the  time  of  our  people. 
This  novel  branch  is  the  establishment  of  sanitary  legislation  for  our 
public  vehicles,  railroad  cars,  horse-cars,  etc.  At  the  first  glance 
this  may  seem  to  be  an  insignificant  feature,  but  this  it  is  b}^  no 
means.  Let  it  be  considered,  for  instance,  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  spend  every  year  over  one  billion  hours  in  these  cars. 
One  thousand  million  of  hours  of  human  life  is  equal  to  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  thousand  years  of  that  most  precious  of  all  boons  ;  and 
these  one  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand  years  are  exposed  every 
year  to  a  condition  of  atuiosphei-e  far  more  deathly  than  the  risks  that 
attend  railroad-travelling  from  other  causes.     Collisions  and  runnino- 


io5 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


off  the 'track  are  mere  accidents;  it  is  a  pure  chance  whether  they 
will  occur  or  not,  and  if  they  do  occur,  whether  the}'  will  kill  or  not. 
But  the  filthy  atmosphere  of  the  ears  is  not  an  accident.  As  the  cars 
are  constructed  now,  it  is  of  necessity  an  inevitable  destroj'er  of  life, 
to  which  you  voluntarily  submit  yourself  when  you  enter  the  car. 
For  the  so-called  accidents  you  can  get  accident  policies ;  but,  seeing 
that  those  accidents  occur  so  very  seldom,  an  accident  policy  is  really 
of  no  use.  But  you  cannot  obtain  a  polic}'  to  i-eimburse  you  for  the 
amount  of  vitality  you  lose  by  the  foul  air  which  you  inhale  in  the 
cars  during  your  journey.  » 

The  normal  ratio  of  carbonic  acid,  which  expression  involves  all 
the  foulness  in  the  atmosphere,  is  but  0.035  per  cent  in  the  fresh  air. 
Whenever  the  percentage  reaches  0.06,  the  air  is  unhealthy  and 
begins  to  grow  dangerous. 

Compare  with  these  figures  the  fact  that  thirty-five  analyses  of  the 
atmosphere  in  railroad  cars,  which  were  undertaken  in  Massachusetts, 
gave  as  result:  Ratio  of  carbonic  acid  in  smoking-cars  0.228,  in 
regular  cars  0.232  per  cent,  or  nearly  forty  times  the  amount  beyond 
which  the  presence  of  that  gas  is  seriously  injurious  to  health.  To 
reduce  this  0.232  per  cent  of  deathly  gas  to  the  minimum  of  0.06  per 
cent,  it  is  necessary  that  a  car  containing  sixty  adult  passengers 
should  be  furnished  every  hour  with  at  least  two  thousand  cubic  feet 
of  fresh  air. 

Is  not  this,  therefore,  a  proper  subject  for  the  interference  of  gov- 
ernmental legislation?  It  is  true  that  the  •'  Car-Builders'  Association 
of  the  United  States"  has  already  given  this  subject  its  considera- 
tion, and  at  its  last  annual  convention  in  New  York  passed  resolutions 
in  regard  to  the  matter,  urging  a  proper  system  of  ventilation  for 
railroads.  But  we  know  well  what  such  sporadic  resolutions  mean. 
The  only  effective  means  to  bring  about  the  required  reform  lies  with 
the  law,  which  takes  the  subject  from  individual  inclination  to  general 
necessity. 

For  if  sanitary  legislation  is  incompatible  with  individual  freedom, 
then  let  us  abolish  all  our  sanitary  boards  of  health,  all  our  laws 
for  the  cleaning  of  streets  and  alleys,  for  the  removal  of  dead 
animals,  for  the  establishment  of  slaughter-houses,  and  for  the 
erection  of  sewers ;  let  the  druggist  sell  poison  in  any  quantity 
to  any  customer  who  asks  for  it;  let  us  repeal  all  laws  for  the 
inspection  of  boilers,  and    all  our  building-acts.     In  short,  let  the 


PUBLIC    HYGIENE.  107 

government,  in  carrying  out  its  duty  to  protect  the  life  of  its  citizens, 
confine  itself  to  the  primitive  interpretation  of  tliat  dutj-,  as  current 
amongst  the  rudest  tribes  of  men :  to  protect  that  life  simply  against 
the  direct  assault  of  other  individuals,  or  against  murder. 

But  if  our  government  has  passed  beyond  that  primitive  state, 
and  if  it  has  any  authority  to  exercise  the  functions  which  I  have 
just  mentioned,  then  let  us  not  stop  at  the  patchwork  of  sanitary 
legislation  which  we  have  in  fragmentary  efforts  for  several  discon- 
nected parts  of  our  country,  but  contrive  a  complete  system  of  such 
legislation  for  the  whole  United  States. 

I  may  add,  in  conclusion,  that  my  system  of  Public  Hygiene  rests 
on  the  i)rinciple,  that  the  State  and  Federal  governments  alone  have 
the  power  to  enforce  laws  to  preserve  the  public  health,  and  that 
nearly  all  diseases  to  which  the  human  bodj'  is  subject  are  pre- 
ventable.    I  will  close  this  chapter  with  some  quotations:  — 

Dr.  Simon,  the  most  distinguished  of  all  European  sanitarians, 
sa3's,  for  instance,  that  "the  preventive  power  wliich  we  possess 
over  disease  is  among  the  happiest  possessions  of  science.  Scien- 
tific and  professional  men  are  studying  the  sickness  and  death  rates 
of  communities,  and  are  applying  the  results  of  inquiries  to  discover 
or  lessen  preventable  diseases.  Diseases  induced  by  some  specific 
body,  or  by  anomalies  in  the  quantity  or  quality  of  food,  or  as  the 
products  of  vegetable  and  animal  decomposition,  or  specific  emana- 
tions from  the  body  in  a  state  of  disease,  are  preventable."  Another, 
almost  equally  as  high  in  rank  in  sanitary  science.  Dr.  Tanner,  says 
that  disease  and  untimely  death  result  not  from  necessity,  or  from 
chance  or  accident,  but  really  from  the  infringement  of  those  laws 
and  conditions  on  the  due  observance  of  which  the  Creator  has 
decreed  that  the  health  and  welfare  of  the  various  organs  of  the  body 
depend. 

Dr.  Rush  writes  that  the  means  of  preventing  pestilential  fevers 
is  as  much  under  the  power  of  human  reason  and  industry  as  the 
means  of  preventing  the  evils  of  lightning  or  common  fire.  So 
satisfied  was  he  of  the  truth  of  his  opinion,  tliat  he  looked  for  the 
time  when  our  courts  of  law  should  punish  cities  and  villages  for 
permitting  any  of  the  sources  of  bilious  or  malignant  fever  to  exist 
within  their  jurisdiction.  Florence  Nightingale  truly  says  there  can 
be  no  stronger  condemnation  of  any  town  than  the  outljreak  of  fatal 
epidemics  in  it. 


108  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 


PUBLIC    EDUCATIOJST. 


CHAPTEE    I. 

'        RELATION   OF   MORALITY   AND   LAW. 

The  conception  of  law  has  a  twofold  peculiarity.  It  is  that  of  a 
power  and  knowledge  that  Ues  wholly  beyond  nature ;  for  nature  has 
made  no  provision  against  the  interference  of  one  man's  freedom  and 
activity  with  the  freedom  and  activity  of  the  other,  but  leaves  to  man 
every  possibility  of  killing,  injuring,  and  checking  the  freedom  of  his 
fellow-man. 

Nor  is  the  conception  of  law  that  of  a  moral  force ;  for  the  moral 
law,  manifesting  itself  as  a  command  to  realize  the  highest  good 
and  happiness,  addresses  itself  to  each  member  of  the  moral  world 
with  categorical  necessity  and  in  perfect  harmon3^  All  men  have 
the  same  common  moral,  as  they  have  the  same  common  phj-sical 
world,  so  that  the  moral  acts  of  all  necessarilj^  and  of  themselves 
harmonize  into  one.  The  moral  law,  therefore,  does  not  need  the 
conception  of  right  or  wrong  to  enforce  itself,  and  were  its  rule 
established,  the  power  of  law  would  be  no  longer  necessary. 

But  the  moral  law  cannot  manifest  and  enforce  itself  except  in 
beings  that  have  already  developed  themselves  into  freedom  and 
morality ;  and  it  is  this  that  gives  rise  to  the  conception  of  right  and 
law  as  the  intermediate  force  whereby  men  are  to  be  enabled  to 
develop  their  freedom,  under  the  law,  to  a  degree  that  shall  make 
possible  the  supreme  rules  of  moralit3\ 

It  is  this  moral  law,  this  world  of  an  absolute  and  universal  good, 
that  each  individual  should  aspire  to  realize  in  his  own  person,  and 
in  the  subduing  of  all  evil,  with  its  consequent  physical  ailments; 
and  it  is  only  in  thus  subjecting  himself  to  the  greatest  good  that  the 


rUBLIC    EDUCATION.  109 

individual  first  becomes  truly  free,  giving  highest  form  of  expression 
tlirough  his  works  to  the  inspirations  drawn  from  it  and  the  intuitions 
of  its  grandeur,  truth,  and  beauty.  It  is  thus,  through  a  system 
of  individual  moral  beings,  that  the  highest  good  is  reflected  in  an 
infinite  manner  from  different  stand-points  of  beauty,  and  that  within 
His  one  world  of  unlimited  glory  God  has  created  infinite  universes 
through  the  different  mirroriiigs,  translations,  and  intuitions  of  each 
individual:  eveiy  monad  reflecting  in  a  new,  beautiful  way  the  glory 
of  the  highest.  It  is  thus  from  the  divine  fountain  of  love  and 
goodness  endless  inspirations  of  beaut}'  and  truth  ripple  forth  with 
circles  of  wondrous  perspectives,  evermore  extending  the  power  of 
the  human  mind  for  the  attainment  of  its  highest  destination  and  its 
greatest  good  and  happiness. 


CHAP  TEE   II. 

THE   RIGHT   TO    REST. 


It  is  through  law  that  man  [^  to  rise  to  this  state ;  the  law  is  to  be 
the  intermediate  agency  between  man's  primitive  natural  condition 
and  his  ideal  as  a  fitly  and  harmoniously  developed  exponent  of  the 
highest  good,  or  as  a  completely  free  being;  for  in  complete  freedom 
this  highest  good  finds  its  expression.  This  freedom  he  aspires  to 
attain  ;  to  secure  it,  and  for  no  other  purpose,  does  man  establish 
law  and  a  State  organization,  and  no  State  organization  has  any  claim 
to  be  tolerated  which  does  not  provide  for  securing  this  freedom.  No 
man  to  whom  the  means  of  realizing  this,  his  destination,  are  denied 
by  a  State,  is  bound  to  obey  it ;  the  State  not  having  respected  his 
rights,  he  cannot  respect  it. 

In  wisest  forethought,  the  great  legislator  of  antiquity,  Moses,  set 
apart  one  out  of  every  seven  days  for  the  purpose  of  securing  time 
to  worship  God  and  to  attain  moral  culture  to  even  the  meanest  of 
slave-laborers ;  and  it  is  a  disgrace  to  our  age  that  we  are  not  yet 
further  advanced,  and  that  countless  men  and  v/omen  are  still  forced 
to  work  at  all  hours,  so  that  night  brings  no  leisure  for  the  development 


110  •      LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

of  their  higher  natures,  and  Sunday  scarcely  a  few  hours  of  time 
necessary  for  physical  recreation.  Nay,  in  how  many  manufacturing 
districts  are  not  even  young  children  thus  locked  out  by  slavish  labor 
from  development  and  education! 

The  State  should,  by  law,  establish  a  minimum  quantity  of  time,  to 
be  secured  to  children  and  adults  respectively,  for  the  development 
of  their  higher  natures  and  the  exercise  of  their  real  freedom.  It  is 
the  time  thus  secured  which  really  establishes  the  true  wealth  of  a 
man.  Not  in  proportion  as  he  has  gold  and  silver  coins,  or  paper 
tokens  of  wealth,  but  in  proportion  as  he  has  time  for  the  culture  and 
exercise  of  his  true  freedom,  should  a  man  be  classed  wealthy.  His 
deeds  of  freedom  are  his  riches ;  ever}'  additional  hour  of  leisure 
from  mere  toil,  every  hour  of  spare  time  wherein  to  work  out  his 
individual  share  in  the  attainment  of  the  highest  good  and  happiness 
which  a  State  can  make  accessible  to  its  citizens,  increases  in  that 
proportion  the  wealth  of  the  State.  It  is,  therefore,  a  contradiction 
of  the  end  and  aim  of  a  State  organization  when  a  State  counts  itself 
rich  because  its  citizens,  by  slavish  toil,  produce  or  manufacture  to 
exorbitant  degrees.  It  is  the  relief  from  such  inordinate  toil  that 
constitutes  wealth. 

In  an  unconscious  sort  of  way  this  truth  has  manifested  itself  in 
various  labor-movements,  both  here  and  in  Europe  ;  but  it  is  a  truth 
which  should  not  be  rendered  abortive  by  crude  advocacy  and  the 
one-sidedness  of  a  class,  but  which  the  State  itself  should  announce 
as  the  fundamental  principle  of  its  laws  governing  labor,  money,  and 
property. 

Since  Sunday  is  by  the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  recognized  as  the  fit  and  appropriate  day  for  such  rest,  the 
law  should  make  that  day  sacred  to  rest,  instruction,  and  moral  con- 
templation by  forbidding  absolutely  all  kinds  of  labor ;  so  that  not  a 
single  one  of  the  citizens  maj^  have  reason  to  complain  that  he  has 
not  time  for  the  cultivation  of  his  higher  faculties  and  nature,  of  his 
social  qualities,  and  for  the  recreation  of  his  mind  and  body. 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  Ill 

CHAPTEE    III. 

THE    EIGHT   TO    SCHOOLS. 

It  is  not  sufficient,  however,  that  the  State  should  provide  the 
requisite  time  for  the  attainment  of  culture :  it  must  also  provide 
the  means  necessary  to  realize  this  ;  whereby  the  State  will  attach  all 
its  citizens  to  a  pure  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  prove  that  the  govern- 
ment established  to  secure  the  greatest  good,  happiness,  morality, 
intelligence,  wisdom,  and  perfection  of  its  citizens  is  the  best  and 
surest  friend  of  each  person  in  the  State.  In  this  way  will  each  one 
learn  to  love  the  law,  which  affords  him  such  absolute  protection,  and 
secures  him  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  his  rights  and  the  development 
of  all  his  faculties. 

These  means  are  schools,  institutions  for  the  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  all  our  faculties  to  the  utmost  possible  perfection,  and  of 
clear  insight  into  all  the  problems  of  life,  so  that  the  darkness  and 
superstition  accompanying  ignorance,  which  are  the  main  obstacles 
to  the  development  of  man's  freedom,  may  be  forever  swept  away 
from  the  face  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  NATUKE  OF  EDUCATION. 

Everything  moves  by  law ;  as  in  the  physical,  so  in  the  intellectual 
and  moral  world :  both  worlds  in  perfect  harmony  and  accord.  It  is 
the  chief  task  of  education  to  awaken  and  cultivate  an  insight  into 
this  lawfulness  of  all  phenomena,  so  that  the  world  of  mind  and 
inner  soul  maj'  no  longer  seem  to  clash  with  and  oppose  the  world 
of  nature,  but  be  found  to  move  to  the  same  measures  and  tunes,  and 
that  the  smallest  event  in  the  physical  world  would  be  seen  to  fall  into 
perfect  harmony  with  the  plan  and  events  of  the  moral  world.  Thus 
the  world  of  nature  will  no  longer  appear  man's  antagonist,  but  his 
friend  and  home,  as  it  has  not  yet  been  in  any  age,  and  develop 
supernal  radiance  as  expressing,  under  man's  constantly  extending 


112  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


control  and  doininion,  the  wonders  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
universe,  which  the  people  of  former  ages  believed  were  hidden  by 
nature ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  creative  power  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  universe  will  illumine  all  with  new  and  ever-growing 
and  varying  beauties,  — even  as  the  body  of  man  is  beautified  by  his 
moral  and  intellectual  nature  in  the  progress  of  civilization,  making 
the  body  and  mind  of  the  civilized  man  of  culture  reflect  the  glory 
of  the  divinity  with  infinitely  greater  splendor  than  it  is  ever  seen  in 
the  body  and  mind  of  the  uncultured  savage. 

Thus,  in  the  studies  of  mathematics,  physics,  natural  history,  and 
medicine  the  teacher  will  develop  a  knowledge  of  the  manifold  phe- 
nomena of  nature,  point  out  their  separate  laws,  and  the  harmony  and 
correlation  of  those  laws,  and  show  how  all  laws  have  been  provided 
for  by  the  phenomena  in  an  absolute  intelligence,  and  continue  so 
to  be  provided  as  new  ordei's  of  phenomena  are  made  known  and 
present  themselves  for  classification. 

In  the  studies  of  history,  geography,  politics,  law,  social  science, 
and  philology  the  teacher  will,  on  the  other  hand,  point  out  in  the 
course  of  human  civihzation,  with  all  its  attainments  in  art  and  cul- 
ture, the  proportionate  growth  of  the  highest  good  and  happiness, 
and  how  it  moves  in  rhythmic  movements  and  symmetrical  propor- 
tions towards  the  establishment  of  its  ideal. 

Finally,  in  the  study  of  philosophy,  the  science  of  all  sciences, 
the  teacher  will  teach  the  source  of  all  knowledge  in  an  examination 
of  even  that  knowledge  itself,  its  nature  and  condition,  thus  making 
known  the  source  of  all  truth,  since  all  truth  is  a  knowledge  and  the 
fountain  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  each  special  science  and 
branch  of  knowledge.  In  this  highest  of  all  sciences  the  last  veil 
shall  fall  from  the  mind  of  the  scholar,  and  the  whole  universe  appear 
to  him  in  full  clearness. 

But  the  teacher  is  not  only  to  unfold  to  the  intellect  the  wonders 
of  the  universe  and  exhibit  their  harmonious  relation,  he  is  also  to 
teach  the  pupil  the  course  of  action  he  is  to  perform  in  this  world,  — 
his  practical  duty, — firstly,  in  regard  to  himself:  the  vocation  he 
may  choose  in  active  life,  and  to  purify  and  cleanse  his  own  mind 
and  body,  so  that  he  will  be  fit  to  attain  the  greatest  good  and 
happiness  in  the  pursuit  of  that  vocation  of  which  his  faculties  are 
susceptible;  and,  secondly,  in  regard  to  others:  that  the  ultimate  as 
well  as  the  present  greatest  good   and  happiness  of  all  men  must 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  113 

of  necessity  be  always  the  aim  and  object  of  each  man,  and  that  men 
must  love  the  law,  by  means  of  which  alone  this  is  made  possible. 

This  opens  up  the  studies  of  ethics,  morals,  and  aesthetics,  or  of 
intuition  and  inspiration,  — studies  now  altogether  neglected  in  public 
education,  and  yet  so  essential  to  the  development  of  man's  higher 
nature,  which  requires  such  development  with  paramount  necessity 
in  our  age  of  materialistic  tendencies  and  Mammon-worship. 

With  this  high  view  of  the  faculties  of  man,  the  resurrected  notion 
of  man's  descent  from  the  ape,  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  can 
of  course  have  little  in  common.  Based  upon  the  altogether  un- 
supported national  economical  theory  of  Malthus, — that  population 
increases  in  a  geometrical  proportion,  while  the  means  of  life  increase 
onh^  in  arithmetical  proportion,  and  that  thus  only  a  few  have  the 
means  to  survive,  — this  notion  would  make  us  believe  what  no  history 
of  facts  ever  has  demonstrated  or  can  demonstrate :  that  in  the  grand 
war  for  existence  only  the  higliest  developments  can  survive.  All 
history  shows  this  assertion  to  be  a  pure  fiction  and  metaphysical 
coinage  of  the  brain.  The  highest  civilizations  have  perished,  and 
the  rudest  of  Africa  and  Asia  have  survived.  All  history  of  natural 
phenomena  contradicts  it,  as  Cuvier  demonstrated  already  in  1830, 
when  he  showed  that,  so  far  as  historical  experience  extends,  no 
transition  of  one  t3q)e  of  organisms  into  another  is  traceable ;  the 
ibis  on  the  monuments  of  Egypt  is  the  same  as  the  ibis  of  to-day  ; 
the  earliest  sculptured  form  of  man  is  precisely  what  it  is  now.  It 
is  not  so  diflflcult  to  comprehend  how  God  made  man.  But  it  is 
utterl}'  beyond  the  p^wer  of  mind  to  understand  how  an  ape  pro- 
duced man  ;  and  the  greatest  anatomist  of  England,  Huxley,  has 
moreover  shown  that  there  are  differences  in  the  structure  of  man 
and  that  of  any  known  kind  of  ape,  which  makes  it  easy  to  detect  at 
a  glance  to  which  species  the  bones  belong. 

Indeed,  so  far  as  all  historical  knowledge  extends,  — and  it  is  pure 
metaphysical  subtlety  to  speculate  beyond  that,  —  man  has  always 
exhibited  the  same  high  faculties  that  he  possesses  to-day,  has  always 
been  capable  of  the  same  development  of  those  faculties,  and  always 
been  subject  to  the  same  earthly  end  of  them  —  death.  Nowhere  is 
there  an  historical  instance  of  apes  changed  into  men,  nowhere  an 
historical  instance  of  men  transformed  into  other  creatures.  Man 
may  live  forever  and  forever,  and  he  will  still  be  m:ni  ;  the  ape  may 
contiiuie  for  millions  of  years,  and  lie  will  still  be  au  ape. 

8 


114  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Permanence  and  development  of  the  permanent  are  the  two  ever- 
lasting opposites  of  the  universe,  and  their  synthesis  is  reached  in 
education.  The  infinit}^  of  hfe  that  we  are  sure  to  Hve  in  the  ever- 
lasting life  beyond  the  grave  will  still  leave  us  men,  —  the  same  men  w6 
were  on  this  earth,  with  all  our  memories  of  its  manifold  sweetnesses 
and  inexpressible  sorrows.  Far  more  perfect  we  shall  be,  no  doubt, 
growing  beyond  our  highest  expectations  in  goodness,  happiness, 
beauty,  and  wisdom ;  and  3'et  will  be  neither  transmigrated  into 
beasts,  as  Pythagoras  taught,  nor  submerged  into  God,  as  Brahma 
fancied,  but  remain  forever  men,  to  whatever  grander  heights  of 
development  we  may  be  raised  above  our  present. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

CLASSIFICATION   OF   SCHOOLS. 

As  a  means  to  all  these  studies,  the  body  of  the  student  must  be 
taught:  first,  generally  in  gymnasiums,  for  the  development  of  its 
fullest  health  and  strength,  and  agility  of  its  limbs ;  and,  second, 
specifically  for  the  development  of  the  various  senses  and  organs, 
according  as  the  pupil  may  need  for  his  chosen  vocation  in  life. 

Thus,  schools  have  a  threefold  function :  — 

1.  To  develop  the  body  so  as  to  make  it  in  ever}^  respect  a  com- 
plete, healthy,  diligent,  and  well-trained  expression  and  instrument  of 
the  soul  and  mind. 

2.  To  develop  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind,  and  all  senses  and 
organs  of  the  body,  according  as  the  pupil  may  choose  his  vocation 
in  life,  for  the  perception  and  realization  in  himself  and  all  others  of 
the  highest  good  and  happiness. 

3.  To  develop  the  moral  faculty,  or  knowledge  of,  reverence  for, 
and  implicit  subjection  to'  the  idea  of  the  highest  good. 

And  a  complete  system  of  schools  involves  the  establishment  of  — 

SCHOOLS    FOR    PHYSICAL    EDUCATION. 

Gymnasiums,  with  military  schools  attached  to  them,  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  body  and  instruction  in  military  practice,  which  are  to 
be  attached  to  all  the  following  schools,  except  the  university :  — 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  115 

SCHOOLS    FOR    INTELLECTUAL    EDUCATION. 

1.  Common  schools  —  for  teaching  the  first  elementary  branches, 
and  graded  so  as  to  prepare  the  pupil  for  either  one  of  the  follow- 
ing :  — 

2.  Agricultural  schools  —  comprising  botany,  landscape  arboricul- 
ture, pomology,  gardening,  vegetable  chemistry,  geology,  zoology, 
and  surveying. 

3.  Industrial  schools  —  for  teaching  all  kinds  of  industrial  labors 
and  works,  and  the  secret  arts  of  the  trades. 

4.  Schools  of  technology  or  useful  arts  —  wherein  are  to  be  taught 
civil  and  military  engineering,  mechanical  engineering,  geology  and 
mining  engineering,  building,  engraving,  photographing,  telegraph- 
ing, navigation,  and  astronomy. 

5.  Schools  of  fine  art  —  for  educating  artists  in  the  various  fine 
arts :  painting,  sculpture,  architecture  in  its  character  as  art,  music, 
and  poetry. 

6.  High  schools  —  where  the  higher  branches  will  be  taught,  pre- 
paring pupils,  according  as  they  may  choose  their  vocation  in  life,  for 
either  of  the  following :  — 

7.  Normal  schools  —  to  be  established  exclusively  for  the  educa- 
tion of  teachers. 

8.  Business  schools  —  for  the  education  of  pupils  in  all  classes  of 
business:  manufacturing,  commerce,  banking,  and  office  business. 

9.  Law  schools  — for  the  education  of  lawyers. 

10.  Schools  of  medicine  —  for  the  education  of  doctors  and  sur- 
geons. 

11.  Colleges  —  where  the  highest  branches  of  all  knowledge  and 
science  are  to  be  taught,  so  as  to  raise  a  corps  of  men  devoted  exclu- 
sively to  culture  and  science,  for  — 

12.  The  university. 

Education  of  the  moral  faculty  to  be  a  part  of  the  duties  and  pur- 
poses of  every  school,  except  the  gymnasium  and  the  university. 


IIG  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

« 

CHAPTER    VI. 

SCHOOL  EXiOBITIONS. 

It  will  be  well  to  arrange  for  each  school  a  system  of  rewards  or 
premiums,  by  means  of  which  to  incite  the  scholars  to  unremitting 
effort  and  awaken  their  sense  of  honor,  which  is  the  same  as  their 
self-respect,  whereof  Kant  says  that  it  is  the  ultimate  basis  of  all 
morality. 

For  the  common  schools  this  can  be  easily  arranged  by  the  distri- 
bution of  medals  for  morality,  industry,  learning,  and  good  behavior, 
and  by  other  tokens  of  approval  and  rewards,  which  have  a  far  hap- 
pier effect  in  inciting  the  scholar  to  increased  effort  than  punishments, 
that  onl}-  degrade  him  in  his  own  eyes,  and  by  thus  lessening  his  self- 
respect,  undermine  his  whole  moral  nature. 

The  agricultural  schools  should  have  annual  exhibitions  in  every 
county,  in  which  all  the  farmers  of  the  county  might  join  in  annual 
fairs,  where  scholars  and  practical  farmers  would  meet  together  and 
interchange  thoughts,  experiences,  and  learning,  and  where  the 
teachers  of  the  agricultural  schools  might  distribute  medals  of  reward, 
both  among  their  own  scholars  according  to  their  respective  profi- 
ciency, and  among  the  farmers  according  to  the  results  of  their 
respective  labors,  thus  encouraging  and  stimulating  a  healthy  rivalry 
and  spirit  to  excel  in  producing  the  verj^  best  of  that  kind  of  vegetable 
and  animal  food  with  which  the  welfare  of  all  citizens  is  so  intimately 
connected. 

The  industrial  and  technological  schools  might,  where  it  is  practi- 
cable, unite  with  the  agricultural  schools  in  a  common  exhibition, 
making  mutually  known  to  each  other  what  has  been  accomplished  by 
either  in  their  separate  branches,  and  uniting  in  common  festivities. 

The  same  system  of  rewards  should  be  applied  to  all  other  schools  ; 
and  it  would  be  well  if  the  State  should  take  appreciative  cognizance 
of  the  moral  conduct  of  its  citizens  bj'^  acknowledging  rare  acts  of 
self-devotion,  philanthropy,  and  charity. 

In  this  way  the  fundamental  principle  of  our  organic  code,  that  the 
true  end  and  aim  of  all  government  is  to  attain  the  highest  good, 
happiness,  and  wisdom  for  the  individual  and  each  of  his  neighbors, 
would  be  steadil}"^  deeper  engrafted  into  the  hearts  of  the  citizens. 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  117 

and  men  would  cease  to  regard  the  attainment  of  a  position  of 
powei',  place,  or  of  superfluous  wealth  as  their  proper  aim  in  life. 
The  curse  of  American  civilization,  love  of  such  power,  place,  and 
wealth,  and  sacrifice  of  all  noble  ends  in  life  to  their  attainment, 
would  be  eradicated,  or  at  least  greatly  diminished. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE   EDUCATION   OF  EVERY   SCHOLAR  FOR  A   VOCATION. 

To  perceive  and  realize  for  himself  and  others  the  greatest  good 
and  happiness  in  a  State,  each  pupil  in  early  life  must  choose  a  voca- 
tion, and  in  the  above  system  of  schools  each  pupil  will  be  enabled  to 
prepare  himself  for  the  vocation  he  chooses,  and  thus  to  enter  life 
fully  equipped  with  means  to  earn  his  livelihood  immediately  after  his 
education  is  conjpleted.  Nor  need  he  spend  any  time  in  studies  that 
are  not  necessary  for  his  vocation  and  general  culture,  and  will  thus 
be  enabled  all  the  better  to  learn  the  particular  vocation  of  his  choice. 
Tlie  pupil,  for  instance,  who  aspires  to  become  a  lawyer,  can,  imme- 
diately after  passing  through  the  common  school  and  high  school,  — 
in  which  latter  he  can  select  only  such  studies  as  will  be  beneficial  to 
him  for  his  profession  and  general  culture, — go  to  the  law  school; 
while  the  one  who  wishes  to  liecome  a  farmer  can,  immediately  after 
having  passed  the  common  school,  advance  to  the  agricultural  school. 

In  order  to  make  this  education  accessible  to  every  member  of  the 
State,  and  to  furnish  each  person  with  the  necessary  knowledge  and 
dexterity  demanded  by  his  vocation,  thereby  making  pauperism  im- 
possible, the  State  must  furnish  to  each  pupil  lodging,  food,  and 
clothing  during  the  term  of  his  scholarship.  This  will,  of  course,  be 
done  only  when  it  is  necessary  and  required  ;  but  by  doing  it  such 
Institutions  as  work-houses  will  be  rendered  altogether  useless,  and  an 
effectual  stop  put  to  the  spread  of  crime.  Tlie  expense  will  be  com- 
paratively slight,  and  saved  thousaiuls  of  times  in  doing  away  with 
the  institutions  it  is  now  found  necessary  to  erect  and  support  for 
paupers  and  criminals,  and  vvhioh,  by  the  peculiar  degradatory  char. 


118  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

acter  attached  to  them,  keep  permanent  a  peculiar  and  constantly- 
increasing  class  of  indigents,  the  dangerous  element  of  every  society. 

In  all  agricultural  districts,  and  smaller  villages  and  cities,  for 
instance,  there  will  be  only  few  children  and  young  persons  who  will 
require  the  support  of  the  State  during  the  time  of  their  education ; 
and  it  is  only  in  the  larger  cities  that  expensive  measures  will  have  to 
be  adopted.  The  immense  majority  of  parents  will  always  prefer  to 
provide  their  own  children  with  raiment  and  food.  But  by  providing 
those  who  are  unable  to  do  this  with  the  means  of  education,  and 
furnishing  the  poorest  child  with  an  education,  profession,  or  trade, 
the  State  will,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  have  realized  the  doctrine 
of  human  equality  in  its  full  and  true  sense,  by  placing  in  the  hands 
of  every  citizen  a  livelihood.  For  the  other  distinction  of  life,  which 
results  from  money,  is  but  accidental,  and  of  no  value  to  him  who 
has  the  means  of  earning  enough  for  his  living,  with  the  capacity  of 
self-development  placed  equally  in  his  hands. 

It  is,  of  course,  understood  that  all  classes  of  education  are  open 
equally  to  both  sexes.  In  the  lowest  class  of  schools,  as  well  as  in 
the  highest,  the  university,  both  sexes  may  use,  moreover,  the  same 
schools;  in  all  intermediate  schools  different  ones  wnll  have  to  be 
arranged  for  either  sex.  In  women's  working  schools,  of  course, 
women  only  are  admitted. 


CHAPTER  Vni. 

ANALYSIS   or  THIS   SYSTEM  OF   SCHOOLS. 

I  will  now  enter  upon  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  several  classes 
of  schools,  and  their  peculiar  character. 

GTBINASroMS. 

In  gymnasiums,  the  body  in  general  is  to  be  educated  into  flexible 
obedience  to  the  will  of  its  possessor.  As  everything  in  the  double 
world  of  nature  and  spirit  moves  in  obedience  to  harmonious  laws,  so 
the  culture  of  the  body,  as  an  instrument  of  the  mind,  infuses  health 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  119 

into  the  physical  and  mental  organization  ;  and  the  gymnasium  is, 
therefore,  both  a  sanitary  and  an  educational  institution,  and  its 
teacher  or  teachers  must  be  competent  in  both  respects. 

By  nature  the  human  body  is  a  mere  mass  of  organs,  clumsy,  shape- 
less, and  disobedient ;  not  a  fixed,  determined  organization,  like  the 
body  of  an  animal,  but  the  indefinite,  undetermined  organization  of  a 
rational  being,  who  is  to  work  it  out  himself,  —  a  body  with  no  other 
character  than  that  of  determinability.  Physical  education  is  to  take 
hold  of  this  clumsy  body  and  make  of  it  the  most  artistic  object  in 
the  universe,  irradiating  beaut}^  by  its  glow  and  proportions  as  well 
as  by  the  grace  of  its  movements,  and  revealing  the  most  developed 
strength  and  agility  in  each  of  its  limbs.  Wonderful  quickness  and 
power  are  to  be  developed  in  every  part  of  the  body,  a  strength  and 
security  of  movement  which  seem  almost  supernatural,  and  the  obe- 
dience of  every  limb  is  to  be  no  longer  sullen  and  slow,  but  quick 
and  dexterous. 

To  attain  this  development  of  the  body,  teachers  must  be  selected 
that  are  well  instructed  in  all  the  appliances  of  the  science  of  g3'm- 
nastics,  and  with  competent  knowledge  of  the  sanitary  effects  of  the 
various  kinds  of  gymnastical  evolutions  upon  the  body.  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  exercises,  imparting  grace  of  movement,  and  at  the 
same  time  enjoyable  in  a  high  degree,  is  dancing,  which  should 
therefore  be  taught  in  every  gymnasium.  Nor  should  this  exercise 
be  confined  to  the  common  dances,  but  reach  to  the  highest 
branches  of  the  art  of  dancing,  wherein  the  movements  of  the 
bod}^  become  the  visible  interpreters  of  the  movements  of  the 
music. 

To  every  gymnasium  there  should  also  be  attached  a  swimming- 
school,  so  that  this  healthy  and  refreshing  exercise,  a  knowledge  of 
which  may  so  often  preserve  life,  should  be  acquired  by  as  many 
scholars  as  possible. 

With  bodies  thus  developed  into  health,  strength,  and  grace,  and 
wherein  the  mind  would  exercise  that  instantaneous  and  perfect  con- 
trol and  force  which  is  the  result  of  such  development,  the  men  and 
women  of  the  country  would  rise  to  a  condition  of  self-reliance, 
strength,  pride,  and  glory  such  as  speaks  to  us  through  the  finest 
statues  of  ancient  Greece.  Health  and  litheness  would  make  every 
moment  of  life  a  delight  and  joy. 


120  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 


MILITARY    SCHOOLS. 


If  history  emphasizes  any  fact  it  is  this :  that  nothing  is  more  fatal 
to  the  political  liberties  of  the  people  of  a  State  than  the  organiza- 
tion of  an  exclusive,  distinct  military  body;  and  the  more  numer- 
ous such  a  body  is,  the  greater  will  be  the  oppression.  Even  where 
such  a  military  body  is  organized  among  the  people  themselves,  and 
for  only  temporary  service  and  drill,  as  is  the  case  in  Germany  under 
the  landwehr  system,  the  evil  effects  are  directly  apparent.  Horrible 
as  the  object  itself  is  for  which  military  drill  is  needed,  the  spirit 
Inculcated  by  the  drill  bears  even  worse  results ;  for  while  war  only 
destroys  life,  the  spirit  of  submission  and  dependence  which  is  in- 
fused by  the  drill,  and  which  gradually  prepares  men  for  a  condition 
of  slavery  in  general,  destroys  all  that  gives  value  to  life.  Hence  all 
countries  have  drifted  more  and  more  into  political  slavery  as  their 
standing  armies  were  increased ;  and.  in  Germany  especially,  such 
abandonment  of  formerly  free  and  repubhcan  principles  and  feeUngs 
among  the  people  for  slavish  subjection  to  imperial  rule  has  patently 
been  the  result  of  its  system  of  a  military  force  which  enlists  every 
citizen,  and  thereby  infects  the  whole  population  of  the  State  with 
that  military  slavish  spirit. 

Nevertheless,  the  time  has  not  yet  come  when,  under  such  an  inter- 
national code  as  I  shall  propose,  the  military  body  of  a  State  can  be 
entirely  dispensed  with.  We  meanwhile  need  a  small  professional 
military  force  for  naval  and  garrison  duty,  and  at  the  same  time  we 
need  another  larger  force,  that  shall  make  us  at  all  times  prepared  to 
levy  against  any  foreign  power  all  the  strength,  art,  and  science  of 
our  government.  For  it  is  the  most  perfect  State,  the  State  of  fullest 
individual  freedom  and  least  despotic  power,  which  is  in  greatest 
dano-er  of  attack  from  the  despotism  of  other  countries,  as  most 
likely  by  its  example  to  arouse  their  people  to  a  struggle  for  a  similar 
condition  of  liberty  under  the  law. 

The  problem  is,  therefore,  so  to  arrange  matters  that  our  govern- 
ment shall  have  at  all  times  ready  all  the  resources  of  the  art  of  war 
and  all  the  forces  of  the  republic,  without  having  a  specially  organ- 
ized military  body,  except  the  small  one  heretofore  mentioned ;  and 
this  body  can  be  reduced  still  further,  if  the  police  system  proposed 
by  me  in  another  part  of  this  work  should  be  adopted. 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  121 

So  far  as  the  instruments  of  war  are  concerned,  there  need  be  no 
difficult}^  Fortifications  can  be  built  and  kept  in  condition  of  de- 
fence, according  to  the  most  advanced  principles  of  military  science, 
without  endangering  the  liberties  of  the  people.  Ships  of  war  also 
can  be  constructed  in  sufficient  number,  and  the  necessary  material 
of  war  for  all  branches  of  the  service  can  always  be  kept  on  hand. 

So  far  as  the  men  —  the  soldiers  —  are  concerned,  it  seems  to  me  that 
if  the  gymnasium  were  to  add  to  its  course  of  instruction  a  military 
drill,  the  main  body  of  an  army  —  the  infantry  —  would  at  all  times 
be  on  hand.  Such  a  government  as  I  propose,  with  a  body  of  men 
physically  developed  in  every  way  by  the  gymnasium,  and,  moreover, 
practised  in  the  drill  of  military  service,  needs  no  further  special 
organization  of  that  body  to  render  it  effective  at  any  time.  The 
men  of  the  State  would  all  be  as  conversant  with  the  drill  of  the 
service  as  with  their  A  B  C's,  ready  at  any  moment  to  apply  their 
knowledge  ;  and  yet  they  would  be  without  any  organization  until 
the  moment  of  peril. 

The  cavalr_y  branch  of  the  army,  which  is  comparatively  of  small 
importance,  could  be  formed  in  cities.  Requiring,  as  it  does,  the 
drilling  of  horses  as  well  as  the  drilling  of  men,  and  the  exercise 
of  large  numbers  at  one  time,  it  would  be,  perhaps,  inconvenient  to 
collect  in  the  countr}'  a  sufficient  force  at  one  time  for  the  purpose 
of  military  training.  But  among  the  young  men  of  the  cities  attend- 
ing the  gymnasium  a  sufficient  number  could  doubtless  be  collected 
to  organize  for  instruction  in  cavalry  practice,  more  especiall}'  as  the 
exercises  would  necessarily  take  them  out  in  the  open  country,  and 
thus  combine  recreation  and  enjoyment  with  militarj^  instruction. 

Artillery  practice  might  also  be  taught  in  large  cities,  but  particu- 
larly in  the  districts  adjoining  fortifications  and  navy-3'ards.  This 
branch  of  the  service  is  of  the  least  importance  in  actual  battle,  for 
its  main  effect  is  to  produce  fear  by  noise,  and  a  proper  degree  of 
individual  coui-age  on  the  part  of  the  infantry  is  always  able  to 
overcome  it.  Machiavelli  pointed  this  out  long  ago,  and  wherever  a 
fearless  and  educated  infantry  has  been  opposed  to  artillery,  the 
result  has  corroborated  his  judgment. 

In  this  manner  the  State  would  have  ready  at  all  times  an  effective 
service,  without  tiie  dangerous  element  of  a  specially  organized  mili- 
tary body.  Against  such  an  army  of  active,  healthy,  wcll-(b-illed, 
and  intelligent  freemen  no  other  army  of  equal  numbers  could  long 


122  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

hold  out.  And  it  is  to  be  lioped  that  the  international  judiciary 
proposed  in  my  system  for  the  final  settlement  of  all  questions  at 
issue  between  kingdoms,  empires,  and  republics  belonging  to  the 
international  federative  association  of  civilized,  enhghtened  nations, 
will  enable  them  to  settle  all  disputes  without  resorting  to  war. 

COMMON    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS. 

In  the  common  public  schools  the  child  gets  its  first  control  over 
the  instruments  of  all  learning:  reading,  writing,  and  ciphering. 
Having  acquired  this  control,  the  child  is,  by  a  judicious  system 
of  gradation,  taught  to  apply  those  instruments  in  the  acquirement 
of  a  knowledge  of  fundamental  history,  geography,  natural  history, 
and  finally,  perhaps,  the  first  principles  of  natural  philosophy  and 
chemistry. 

In  order  to  accomplish  the  most  in  the  least  time,  the  hours  of 
school  attendance  should  be  as  few  as  possible ;  but  the  corps  of 
teachers  should  be  as  large  as  practicable,  so  that  each  teacher  may 
have  but  a  small  number  of  children  under  his  direct  supervision. 
It  is  surely  not  necessary  to  keep  children  at  exercises  that  tire  their 
eyes  and  weary  their  young  bodies,  merely  to  while  time  away ;  nor 
is  it  polic}^  to  intrust  to  one  teacher  more  children  than  he  can  pay 
attention  to.  In  Prussia,  for  instance,  there  is  only  one  school- 
teacher for  every  forty  scholars ;  and  yet  that  same  State  thinks  it 
necessary  to  employ  one  teacher,  called  corporal,  for  every  six  mili- 
tary scholars  or  soldiers. 

Needing  only  a  few  hours'  attendance  per  day  at  the  common 
school,  the  child  will  haA^e  ample  time  for  the  art  school  and  the  gym- 
UAsiura,  and  yet  have  abundant  leisure  for  plaj^  recreation,  training, 
and  self-culture  at  home. 

From  the  common  public  school  the  child  can  enter  the  agricul- 
tural school,  or  the  industrial  school,  or  the  school  of  technology,  or, 
if  it  decides  to  pursue  a  higher  education,  it  may  enter  the  high 
school. 

AGRICULTURAL     SCHOOLS. 

Agi'iculture,  being  the  most  independent  profession,  in  that  it  fur- 
nishes man  directly  his  food  and  the  materials  for  clothing,  will  prob- 
ably be  at  all  times  the  chosen  vocation  of  the  proportionately  larger 
number  of  scholars,  and  should  indeed  be  encouraged,  rewarded. 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  123 

and  made  profitable  in  every  way.  The  main  problem  of  agriculture 
is  to  gain  the  greatest  amount  of  the  various  products  from  the  least 
amount  of  land,  without  deteriorating  the  soil ;  and  in  proportion  as 
the  State  increases  in  population  the  importance  of  this  problem  be- 
comes greater,  as  will  be  shown  more  particularly  hereafter,  when 
speaking  of  the  vast  amounts  of  lands  squandered  upon  the  railroads 
through  the  recklessness  of  Congress. 

The  scholar  who  chooses  agriculture  for  his  vocation  must  be  in- 
structed in  all  the  means  science  has  discovered  to  solve  that  prob- 
lem, and  at  the  same  time  be  made  practically  conversant  with  the 
appliances  of  labor  whereby  to  carry  them  out. 

For  the  latter  purpose  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  every  agricul- 
tural school  should  be  situated  upon  an  extensive  tract  of  land, 
whereon  the  various  forms  of  agriculture  can  be  carried  out.  Part 
of  the  land  will  therefore  have  to  be  laid  out  in  a  farm  ;  part  in  for- 
ests, orchards,  and  vineyards;  part  in  pasturage;  part  in  useful 
vegetable  gardens,  and  part  in  artistic  landscape  and  gardens. 

The  scholars  may  be  assigned  to  either  branch  of  the  work,  or,  if 
their  stay  at  school  is  long  enough,  to  more  or  all  of  them. 

For  the  former  purpose  it  is  necessary  to  set  apart  certain  hours  of 
the  day  for  instruction  in  the  various  sciences  relating  to  agricul- 
ture, —  as,  for  instance,  chemistry  of  the  soil,  vegetable  chemistry, 
manuring,  stock-raising,  pomology,  botany,  landscape  gardening, 
grafting,  geology,  and  zoology. 

To  these  studies  should  be  added  lectures  for  the  development  of 
moral  culture,  and  culture  in  general, — the  secluded  hfe  of  the 
farmer  making  it  essential  to  his  happiness  that  he  should  acquire  a 
taste  for  the  fine  arts  in  their  various  forms,  —  and  also  a  series  of 
lectures  on  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  State  and  of  the  feder- 
ative system. 

INDUSTRIAL     SCHOOLS. 

Of  the  pupils  of  those  schools  who  do  not  choose  agriculture  for 
their  vocation,  a  number  will  doubtless  engage  in  industrial  pursuits, 
and  should  therefore  be  fitted  out  by  the  State  with  all  the  knowledge 
necessary  for  that  purpose,  in  special  industrial  schools,  with  separate 
schoools  for  the  instruction  of  women  in  labors  and  acquirements 
that  are  purelj^  womanl3^ 

The  industrial  school  for  boys  should  provide  and  teach  all  kinds 


124  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

of  woi-k  and  manufacture  practised  in  the  .State,  as  the  taste  of  the 
schohir  may  single  out  for  his  vocation.  These  schools,  as  well  as 
the  agricultural  schools,  can  be  made  productive,  and  the  profits 
divided  among  the  pupils  and  used  for  premiums.  Still,  it  should  on 
no  account  be  the  object  of  the  schools  to  be  made  productive  for 
the  State,  since  such  a  system  would  surely  lead  to  oppression  and 
corruption,  and  excite  dissatisfaction  among  the  scholars. 

The  industrial  schools  for  women  should  educate  girls  in  all  the 
work  peculiar  to  housekeeping,  and  all  other  kinds  of  work  that  may 
belong  peculiarly  to  women,  —  as,  sewing,  embroidery,  knitting,  etc. 
At  the  same  time,  they  should  be  allowed  and  encouraged  to  learn 
any  of  the  other  kinds  of  industrial  work  that  any  one  might  desire 
to  choose  for  her  livelihood,  —  as,  telegraphing,  printing,  etc.  But  as 
the  art  of  housekeeping,  with  its  various  elements,  will  in  some  way 
or  another  need  to  be  known  by  every  woman,  special  attention 
should  be  devoted  to  this  branch  of  the  school.  All  matters  relating 
to  the  kitchen,  the  chemistry  of  cooking,  the  sanitary  and  gastro- 
nomical  elements  of  diet,  and  its  rotation  during  the  week  and  the 
seasons  of  the  year,  should  be  thoroughly  taught ;  as  also  the  mode 
of  keeping  accounts  for  the  household,  etc. 

In  both  classes  of  industrial  schools  a  course  of  general  culture 
and  literature  should  accompany  the  specific  instruction,  and  also,  as 
indeed  in  every  school,  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  the  State  and  of  the  Federation. 


SCHOOLS    OF    TECHNOLOGY. 

Schools  of  technology  have  already  been  established  in  one  or  two 
of  our  States,  but  every  State  should  have  at  least  one.  In  these 
schools  all  the  mechanical  professions  and  the  studies  connected  with 
them :  physics,  chemistry,  thermo-dynamics,  machinery,  metallurgy, 
mineialogy,  engineering,  surveying,  mining,  engraving,  photograph- 
ing, telegraphing,  and  navigation. 

As  all  these  sciences  are  based  upon  mathematics,  their  study  will 
have  to  be  made  a  specialty  in  the  schools  of  technology,  as  also  the 
study  of  astronomy,  which  is  indispensable  for  several  of  the  branches 
taught. 

Architecture,  being  not  only  an  art,  but  also  an  engineering  profes- 
sion, should  also  be  taught  in  this  its  character,  as  building,  in  the 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  125 

technological  institutes.  This  includes  the  teaching  of  architectural 
design  and  drawing,  construction  and  applied  mechanics,  the  chem- 
istry of  building-materials,  etc. 

As  the  government  will  have  to  rely  upon  the  graduates  of  the 
schools  of  technology  to  supply  its  military  otlicers  in  times  of  war, 
the  stud_y  of  military  engineering,  surveying,  and  of  all  matters  ap- 
pertaining to  military  science,  should  be  made  a  special  department. 

A  course  of  instruction  in  general  culture  should  also  in  these 
schools  accompan}^  the  technical  course  of  study,  and  should  embrace 
the  studies  of  modern  languages,  history,  botany,  and  composition. 

SCHOOLS    OF    FINE    ARTS. 

In  the  widest  sense  of  the  word,  every  work  of  the  human  intelli- 
gence as  a  manifestation  of  its  creative  povver,  in  contradistinction 
from  the  works  of  nature,  might  properly  be  termed  a  work  of  art ; 
but  usage  has  limited  the  use  of  tiiat  phrase  to  tliose  works  that  have 
no  other  design  than  to  exhibit  man's  creative  power,  and  has  signi- 
fied the  limitation  by  speaking  of  the  arts  generally  as  fine  arts, 
although  one  of  tiicm  —  architecture  —  branches  over  into  the  useful. 

But  all  other  fine  arts  have  only  the  beautiful  for  their  object:  the 
beautiful,  which  is  love ;  the  love,  which  is  creativeness.  Every 
rational  being  loves  by  its  very  nature  to  create,  and  the  love  of  art 
is  therefore  universal.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  every  pupil  of  all 
the  other  schools  will  apply  for  admission  to  the  school  of  arts  for 
the  purpose  of  learning  some  one  favorite  art,  which  he  can  practice 
in  the  leisure  hours  of  his  future  life,  so  that  he  may  be  alile  to  fill 
up  spare  moments  for  himself  and  those  around  him  with  tlie  enjoy- 
ment of  pure  beauty. 

But  quite  a  number  of  scholars,  to  whom  nature  has  kindly  given  a 
peculiar  talent  for  some  one  of  the  arts,  will  wish  to  obtain  a  perfect 
education  in  the  art  chosen,  with  a  view  of  making  it  their  future 
vocation.  These  latter  constitute  a  class  of  artists  proper,  while  the 
former  are  only  amateurs. 

For  the  artistic  education  of  amateurs  it  will  suffice  to  set  apart 
one  or  two  hours  of  study  in  the  school  of  arts,  while  they  are  pur- 
suing their  regular  studies  in  the  other  schools  to  which  they  may 
belong.     These  hours  might  be  arranged  for  the  evenings. 

The  pursuit  of  art  being  itself  an  enjoyment  and  pleasure,  its  study 


126  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

will  not  overtax  the  physical  strength  of  any  scholar,  but  rather 
recuperate  it.  Each  amateur  scholar  must,  of  course,  be  at  libei'ty 
to  choose  the  art  he  desires  to  practise ;  or  to  choose  two,  if  he  has 
the  necessary  time  and  energy.  It  is  of  the  greatest  practical  value 
for  the  future  enjoyment  of  life  that  every  pupil  of  any  school  should 
acquire  at  least  one  art  thoroughly,  so  that  his  taste  for  beauty  may 
be  sufficiently  developed  to  appreciate  it  in  every  form. 

Those  who  desire  to  make  a  special  vocation  of  some  one  particular 
art  will,  of  course,  make  the  school  of  arts  their  permanent  home 
during  their  term  of  instruction.  All  the  materials  necessary  for 
their  studies  should  be  furnished  by  the  State.  The  art  productions 
that  are  sold  would  amply  reimburse  the  outlay.  The  remaining 
profit  should,  of  course,  go  to  the  respective  artists. 

Music  being,  of  all  arts,  the  one  most  easily  practised  under  all 
circumstances  of  life,  and  the  one  most  effective  in  amusing  and  in 
developing  man's  moral  nature,  because  it  appeals  most  intensely  to 
his  internality,  should  be  taught  in  some  one  of  its  forms,  and,  as 
much  as  practicable,  to  every  child.  It  was  surely  not  without  hav- 
ing observed  this,  its  effect,  that  the  Greeks  laid  such  stress  upon  it 
as  an  educational  agent. 

HIGH    SCHOOLS. 

The  high  schools  take  up  education  at  the  point  where  the  common 
schools  leave  off,  and  pursue  it  in  all  its  branches  ;  each  pupil,  how- 
ever, receiving  only  such  education  as  his  future  vocation  in  life  may- 
demand.  Those  who  wish  to  become  business  men,  for  instance, 
receive  another  course  of  instruction  than  those  who  desire  to  devote 
their  lives  to  pure  science,  or  to  any  one  of  the  sciences,  as  philology, 
mathematics,  etc.  For  it  is  not  only  useless,  but  positivel}^  injurious, 
to  teach  scholars  matters  that  they  cannot  pursue  in  their  future 
career  in  life.  A  smattering  of  Latin  and  Greek  taught  to  a  bo}^  who 
intends  to  enter  business  life  both  takes  his  time  and  mind  awaj'  from 
the  studies  he  should  pursue,  and  fills  him  with  false  conceit.  Every 
citizen  of  the  State  should  have  his  special  function,  and  learn  to  be 
completely  master  of  that,  and  not  attempt  to  fill  his  mind  with  a  little 
undigested  knowledge  of  things  that  lie  bej^ond  his  sphere. 

The  pupils  who  have  passed  through  their  course  of  study  at  the 
high  schools  should  then  be  allowed  to  choose  either  of  the  following 
for  the  completion  of  their  education :  — 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  127 

NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

The  normal  schools  should  be  exclusively  adapted  and  established 
for  the  education  of  teachers ;  and  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that 
there  should  be  such  schools  to  train  teachers  for  their  special  pro- 
fession. The  science  of  pedagogics,  or  teaching,  has  to  be  studied 
just  as  well  as  any  other  science,  or  we  shall  never  get  a  body  of 
teachers  fit  to  take  charge  of  the  various  schools  of  the  State,  and 
conversant  with  their  art  in  all  its  branches  and  details.  The  normal 
schools  are  intended  to  educate  a  corps  of  teachers  whose  sole  aim  in 
life  it  shall  be  to  teach,  who  shall  consider  this  their  permanent  voca- 
tion, and  devote  all  their  skill  and  energy  to  carry  on  teaching  suc- 
cessfully. The  shifting  body  of  teachers  to  whom  we  commonly 
intrust  our  schools,  who  take  up  the  profession  of  teaching  simply 
from  temporary  necessity,  and  who  have  to  learn  their  science  in  the 
schools  themselves,  must  be  altogether  dispensed  with.  Only  when 
this  is  accomplished  can  we  rid  ourselves  of  the  text-book  system, 
with  the  mechanical  drill  it  inculcates,  and  which  deadens  the  minds 
of  the  pupils,  checking  every  development  of  freedom  and  individ- 
uality. 

Every  teacher  should  be  competent  to  teach  without  a  text-book, 
whether  it  be  history,  geography,  natural  history,  or  anj'  of  the 
sciences,  and  should  have  learned  the  art  of  teaching  so  impressively 
that  in  conversation  with  his  pupils,  drawing  them  out  and  causino- 
them  to  originate  their  own  answers,  instead  of  memorizing  from  the 
text-book  the  answer  that  is  expected,  he  will  illustrate  all  principles 
taught. 

It  is  only  by  such  a  mode  of  teaching  that  a  teacher  will  ever 
succeed  in  making  his  pupil  think  for  himself,  and  comprehend 
thoroughly  the  reason  of  the  matter  taught,  so  that  he  shall  be  able 
in  all  his  future  life  to  remember  it  and  apply  it  practically  to  any 
problem  that  may  be  sprung  upon  him. 

BUSINESS    SCHOOLS. 

As  things  are  at  present,  those  children  who  desire  to  enter  com- 
mercial, banking,  manufacturing,  or  office  life,  do  so  unprepared 
by  an}--  especial,  instruction  furnished  them  in  our  public  schools. 
They  thus  have  to  learn  whatever  business  they  choose,  altooether 


128  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

by  experience, — a  veiy  slow  and  uncertain  school,  with  indifferent 
teachers ;  not  very  remunerative  either,  since  the  salary  of  the.  inex- 
perienced is  necessarily  small,  —  a  circumstance  that  is  a  fruitful 
source  of  crime. 

Under  the  system  of  schools  herein  proposed,  the  pupil  who  aspires 
to  a  life  of  business  will  not  be  required  to  study  a  number  of  matters 
that  are  utterly  useless  for  him  in  his  future  vocation,  but  enter  from 
the  high  school  directly  into  the  business  school,  and  there  be  taught — 

1.  Whatever  pertains  to  manufacturing  or  commercial  life ;  the 
nature  and  native  places  of  the  various  articles  of  commerce,  their 
mode  of  transportation,  cost.  Insurance,  etc.  ;  and  all  these  matters 
should  be  taught  as  they  are  at  the  time,  so  that  the  scholar  ma}^ 
enter  the  world  of  commerce  with  a  knowledge  of  the  present,  and 
not  of  a  practically  useless  past.  The  art  of  book-keeping  must, 
of  course,  be  taught;  so  also  correspondence,  and,  when  requjired, 
modern  languages. 

2.  Banking  in  all  its  branches,  its  history  and  growth,  and  the 
science  of  money  and  finances. 

3.  All  kinds  of  office  business,  such  as  insurance,  real  estate, 
notarial  duties,  and  such  other  office  business  as  may  be  carried  oii 
in  the  State. 

LAAV-SCHOOLS. 

In  every  school  a  course  of  general  instruction  concerning  the 
laws  and  constitutions  of  the  State  and  Federation  should  be  given ; 
but  in  the  law-schools  this  instruction  is  to  be  special,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  training  a  corps  of  lawyers,  judges,  and  statesmen  that 
shall  be  reliable  and  efficient. 

Only  such  persons  as  have  finished  the  course  of  study  at  these 
schools,  and  received  a  diploma,  should  be  allowed  to  practice  law 
and  be  elective  for  the  judiciary  department  of  the  State  and  Federa- 
tion ;  so  that  no  citizen  may  receive  injury'  from  incompetent  judges, 
or  by  employing  incompetent  counsel. 

The  study  of  pure  law  should  be  accompanied  b}-  a  course  of  the 
history  of  law  and  government  in  the  various  forms  they  have 
assumed  in  the  development  of  the  human  race.  Thus,  besides  the 
stud}-  of  the  organic  law  of  the  State  and  of  the  Federal  government, 
of  the  State  and  Federal  codes,  civil  and  criminal,,  there  should  be  a 
course  on  the  codes  of  foreign  countries,  on  the  principles  of  com- 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  129 

mon  law  and  equity,  on  ancient,  feudal,  and  civil  law,  and  finall}^  on 
international  law  and  international  jurisprudence. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  law-schools  are  to  educate  not 
onl}^  judges  and  law3'ers,  • — that  is  to  say,  servants  and  interpreters 
of  existing  law, — but  also  legislators, — tlie  makers  of  law, — and 
that  lience  there  should  be  taught  not  only  the  existing  and  historical 
statutes  and  forms  of  law,  but  also  the  fundamental  principles  of  law 
and  government.  These  fundamental  principles  of  the  science  of 
law,  and  their  deduction  from  the  fundamental  principles  of  knowl- 
edge in  general,  will  be  furnished  by  the  university,  through  its  pro- 
fessors of  philosophy. 

SCHOOLS    OF    MEDICINE    AND    SURGEKT. 

No  one  should  be  allowed  to  practise  medicine  in  a  State  who  has 
not  passed  the  medical  school  and  received  a  diploma,  and  no  person 
should  be  allowed  to  sell  drugs  or  medicines  unless  he  has  passed 
through  the  pharmacy  department  of  these  schools  and  received  a 
proper  certificate. 

As  the  whole  science  of  medicine,  so  far  as  it  depends  upon  the 
effects  of  drugs,  is  purely  experimental,  all  systems  of  practise 
should  be  equally  taught ;  and  for  the  same  reason  a  record  should 
be  kept  and  arranged,  under  a  proper  system,  to  show  the  direct 
results  that  have  followed  the  administration  of  any  medicine.  No 
science  being  so  purely  negative  and  dependent  upon  experiment  as 
the  science  of  medicine,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  have  a 
continuous  record  of  all  experiments  made  with  an^'  kind  of  di'uo-,  — 
allopathic  or  homoeopathic, — or  with  any  kind  of  mixture  and  the 
compounds  of  that  mixture ;  and  such  record,  together  with  all  other 
facts  regarding  diseases,  the  spread  of  epidemics,  etc.,  should  peri- 
odically be  made  public. 

Surgery,  dentistry,  diseases  of  the  eye  and  ear,  and  indeed  all 
diseases  which  require  mechanical  treatment,  should  constitute  special 
departments  of  the  science  of  medicine,  since  these  diseases  certainly 
admit  a  purely  scientific  treatment. 

COLLEGES. 

Under  the  above  sketched  system  of  schools,  there  will  be  left  for 
entrance  into  college  life  only  those  young  men  or  women  who  desire 
to  devote  themselves  altogether  to  science. 

9 


130  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

The  high  school  does  not  propose  to  educate  its  pupils  any  further 
than  to  fit  them  for  entrance  into  the  schools  just  named  ;  and  hence, 
to  raise  them  to  a  standard  of  education  wliich  alone  will  make  them 
valuable  members  of  the  university,  the  college  must  step  in  as  the 
mediating  factor.  The  college  is  to  furnish  to  such  persons  the 
highest  culture  attainable  to  each  one  in  the  special  department  of 
science  he  may  choose:  mathematics,  physics,  natural  history,  geog- 
raphy, astronomy,  philology,  history,  aesthetics,  etc. 

Having  passed  through  the  college,  the  student  has  served  his  ap- 
prenticeship of  learning,  and,  becoming  a  master,  enters  into  full 
and  equal  intercourse  with  all  other  men  of  science  by  means  of  the 
university. 

■UNIVERSITIES. 

The  national  university  is  to  be,  not  so  much  a  school  —  that  is,  a 
place  for  teaching — as  rather  a  place  for  the  appliance  and  further  new 
<levelopment  of  the  highest  grade  of  learning,  the  gathering-place  of 
the  chief  men  of  the  various  sciences,  and  of  all  who  desire  to  devote 
their  life  exclusively  to  science,  for  common  intercourse  and  improve- 
ment, the  centrid  point  from  which  each  university,  in  conjunction  with 
the  universities  of  all  other  States,  is  to  carry  on  the  ultimate  aim  of 
:ill  States :  to  subjugate  nature  to  the  highest  attainable  extent  unto 
the  control  and  directive  power  of  men,  and  to  develop  the  highest 
culture  and  clearness  i.i  men,  thereby  realizing  their  greatest  good 
and  happiness. 

Here  the  most  perfect  instruments  in  this  war  of  subjugation  should 
be  collected  and  arranged ;  here  constant  experiments  and  observa- 
tions be  conducted,  and  the  result  of  all  other  private  and  public 
experiments  and  observations  be  gathered  and  reported  again  to  all 
•  other  universities  and  institutions,  as  may  be  requisite  ;  here  the  most 
complete  libraries,  art-galleries,  museums,  etc.,  should  be  estabhshed  ; 
and  liere,  finally,  the  teachers  of  the  highest  science  — of  philosophy- 
should  find  their  sphere  of  action  opening  up  its  treasures  to  the 
highest  developed  minds,  and  giving,  from  its  universal  form  and 
substance,  to  every  other  science  its  fundamental  principles  and  the 
form  of  its  procedure. 

In  this  way  all  universities  of  the  world  may  gradually  form  an 
organized  body  of  all  the  world's  learning  and  knowledge,  each  sep- 
arate one  a  nucleus  and  representation  of  all,  and  reflecting  back  upon 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  131 

all  its  own  additional  light  and  acquirement;  realizing  Leibiiilz's 
great  conception  of  an  organized  body  of  scientific  men  over  the 
•whole  earth,  working  together  disinterestedly  for  one  common  object, 
and  each  one  doing  the  peculiar  work  assigned  to  him,  so  that  no 
valuable  time  and  labor  may  be  lost  in  having  the  same  thing  done  by 
many,  as  occurs  constantly  under  the  present  unorganized  system  of 
things. 

A  nation  having  such  a  university,  and  giving  the  best  scholars  of 
the  country  there  assembled  proper  communication  and  influence 
with  that  part  of  the  State  organization  for  which  they  may  be  respec- 
tively specially  qualified,  would  soon  achieve  results  to  excite  the 
admiration  and  emulation  of  all  its  neighbors.  Witli  such  a  trained 
corps  of  scientific  men,  physical  disease  and  hereditary  maladies 
could  doubtless  be  almost  annihilated,  the  forces  of  nature  tamed 
and  regulated  beyond  the  most  sanguine  dreams  of  this  day,  and  the 
finances  and  property  laws  of  the  State  so  codified  as  to  secure  law, 
order,  justice,  happiness,  and  prosperity. 

For  the  power  of  man  is  infinite,  and  when  he  once  opens  his  eyes 
to  see  clearly,  he  will  discover  means  and  remedies  for  every  evil 
tliat  afflicts  the  race.  Tiie  superstitious  notions  of  the  past  on  all 
matters  of  religion,  or  law,  or  medicine,  or  social  and  political  organ- 
ization being  once  removed,  it  will  become  apparent  that  the  distrust 
in  his  own  perfectibility  on  the  part  of  man  was  unfounded,  and  that 
every  problem  of  the  race  is  capable  of  solution,  and  must  be  solved, 
and  that  it  could  not  be  a  problem  given  to  the  race  by  the  Divinity, 
had  not  the  race  the  power  to  solve  it. 

There  is  no  necessity  for  misery,  crime,  and  disease,  and  a  social 
and  political  organization  can  and  must  be  invented  that  will  prevent 
them  ;  there  is  no  necessity  for  living  in  dread  of  the  forces  of  nature, 
and  measures  must  be  discovered  by  which  to  overcome  them  ;  there 
is  no  necessity  for  the  spiritual  gloom  and  fears  that  send  so  many  to 
insane  asylums  and  premature  graves,  and  a  science  of  all  knowledge 
must  remove  the  last  remnant  of  darkness  from  men's  minds,  and 
spread  everywhere  and  over  all  time  spiritual  and  intellectual  light 
and  clearness,  developing  the  true  inspirations. 

To  make  these  discoveries,  organize  these  measures,  and  spread 
this  light,  and  thus  to  realize  the  highest  good,  wisdom,  happiness, 
and  perfection  for  all  inhabitants  of  the  State,  should  be  the  task  of 
the  universities  ;  and  as  they  will  be  established  by  the  State  organi- 


132  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

zations  herein  proposed,  one  of  the  main  objects  of  its  teachers  will 
necessarily  be  to  perfect  the  organic  laws  of  this  system,  and  recom- 
mend an  extension  of  its  harmonious  working,  as  experience  may 
determine,  for  the  preservation  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  men  for 
all  time  to  come. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

The  only  objection  that  has  been  brought  forward  against  the  sys- 
tem of  education  proposed  is  that,  on  the  extensive  plan  sketched 
out  for  it  by  me,  it  would  necessarily  interfere  too  much  with  indi- 
vidual freedom,  and  the  natural  control  of  parents  over  their  children 
and  their  religious  convictions.  It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  this- 
fear  is  entirely  ungrounded,  especially  as  I  take  distinct  ground 
against  compulsory  education. 

My  position  on  this  subject  is  simply  this:  that  a  rational  govern- 
ment cannot  be  upheld  by  a  people  whose  intellectual  faculties  have 
not  been  to  some  extent  cultivated,  and  who  have  not  been  brought 
up  to  some  kind  of  labor  whereby  they  can  earn  their  livelihood. 

This  proposition  seems  to  me  to  be  indisputable,  and  a  glance  at 
the  condition  of  any  savage  tribe  will  illustrate  its  truth  in  daily  ex- 
perience. But  that  without  which  government  is  impossible  must  be 
supplied  in  the  establishment  of  a  government,  and  hence  it  is  the 
positive  duty  of  every  nation  to  fui'nish  to  all  its  citizens  the  means 
of  developing  all  the  faculties  of  their  minds  and  bodies,  and  of  ac- 
quiring a  vocation  in  life  by  the  exercise  of  which  they  can  become 
useful  members  of  the  Commonwealth.  Whether  such  citizens  may 
elect  to  avail  themselves  of  those  means,  is  a  question  which  must  be 
left  to  their  individual  freedom  to  decide.  They  are  at  liberty  to 
grow  up  in  ignorance  and  laziness,  but  if  they  thus  become  paupers 
or  criminals,  they  are  debarred  from  pleading  as  an  excuse  the  ab- 
sence of  education,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word,  as  it  is  used  by 
me.  The  State  has  now  the  right  to  say  to  them,  which  right  it 
would  not  otherwise  have:  the  means  of  earning  your  livelihood  and 
of  cultivating  your  minds  to  become  good  citizens  and  useful  mem- 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  133 

bers  of  our  Commonwealth  were  furnished  you  by  us,  and  in  the  bad 
use  of  your  right  to  your  freedom  you  chose  not  to  accept  these 
benefits.  This  refusal  on  your  part  has  led  you  to  become  offenders 
against  the  laws  of  the  State,  —  corrupt  politicians,  vagrants,  gam- 
blers, robbers,  or  murderers.  The  State  can  therefore  no  longer  rec- 
ognize you  as  belonging  to  its  members,  and  will  have  to  treat  you 
like  criminals  as  you  are,  by  inflicting  the  severest  tasks  of  hard  labor 
upon  you  in  industrial  prisons,  or  if  need  be  execute  you,  as  the  loyal 
bees  destroy  the  drones  in  the  hives. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  organization  of  a  public-school  system 
is  not  only  expedient,  but  a  dut}^  which  the  State  owes  to  its  upgrow- 
ing  citizens,  and  why  it  is  therefore  just  to  levy  a  general  tax  for  its 
support.  The  people,  who  form  and  constitute  a  State  and  its  gov- 
ernment, cannot  realize  the  object  which  they  have  in  view  in  that 
formation,  and  cannot  maintain  the  government  which  they  have 
constituted,  unless  everj'  child  in  the  Commonwealth  is  enabled  to 
develop  all  those  faculties  without  which  it  can  never  becoiije  a  good 
citizen.  Hence  it  is  as  proper  to  tax  the  people  of  the  State  at  large 
for  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  free  public-schools  as  it  is  to  tax 
them  for  the  erection  and  support  of  courts,  penitentiaries,  hospitals, 
and  asylums. 

The  other  argument  used  in  the  objection  to  such  a  system  of  free 
public-schools,  namely,  that  many  parents  desire  their  children  to 
receive  also  religious  instruction  in  schools,  and  that  as  the  public 
schools  cannot  teach  religion  it  is  unjust  to  support  them  by  public 
taxation,  is  still  more  groundless  than  the  plea  that  a  public- school 
system  interferes  with  individual  freedom.  It  is  impossible  that 
injustice  should  be  worked  by  that  system,  so  long  as  all  children, 
no  matter  of  what  creed,  have  equally  the  privilege  of  attendino- 
them  and  learning  all  those  branches  of  education  regarding  which 
there  cannot  be  any  conscientious  dispute.  The  public  schools,  it  is 
true,  do  not  teach  religion,  but  neither  do  they  interpose  any  objec- 
tion to  religious  instruction.  Every  parent  can  have  his  or  her  child 
educated  in  matters  of  religion  as  well  with  as  without  the  public- 
school  system  ;  only  not  in  the  public  schools,  where  religious  teach- 
ing would  bring  Pagan,  Buddhist,  Jew,  Mohammedan,  Brahmin,  and 
the  numerous  sects  of  Christians  into  constant  conflict.  And  what 
earthly  reason  can  be  advanced  to  show  why  children  should  be 
taught  religion  in  the  public  schools,  and  not  rather  in  other  places 


134  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

especially  provided  for  that  purpose  ?  Why  do  not  all  parents  who 
clioose  to  educate  their'  children  in  religion  do  so  independently  of 
the  public  schools,  precisely  as  they  now  send  them  to  special  schools 
of  music  or  painting?  It  is  evident  that  no  satisfactory  reason  can 
be  assigned  why  religious  instruction  should  not  be  given  in  special 
institutions  estabUshed  for  that  purpose  by  each  sect  or  religion,  par- 
ticularly as  these  institutions  already  exist  in  the  different  churches, 
which  are,  after  all,  the  fittest  places  for  teaching  children  those 
religious  doctrines  which  they  will  be  taught  there  also  as  they  grow 
up  to  riper  years.  The  proposition  that  religious  instruction  must 
be  taught  in  common  schools  is  therefore  a  mere  frivolous  pretext. 

But,  say  the  sectarians,  as  we  have  already  a  number  of  common 
schools  of  our  own,  wherein  the  same  educational  subjects  are  ' 
taught  as  in  the  public  schools,  in  addition  to  religion,  is  it  not  fair 
that  our  schools  should  receive  their  equitable  proportion  of  the  taxes 
which  the  State  raises  for  the  general  purposes  of  public  education  ? 
The  reply  is  very  easy.  Sectarian  schools  are  private  institutions, 
and  not  under  the  control  of  the  State.  The  State  has  nothing  to  do 
with  them.  The  State  pays  for  its  own  asylums  and  hospitals,  for 
all  the  sick  and  poor,  but  not  for  the  asylums  and  hospitals  of  either 
sect,  — Jews,  Chinese,  Catholics,  Mussulmen,  or  Protestants.  In  the 
same  way  the  State  pays  for  its  schools  for  all,  and  not  for  private 
schools  of  any  kind.  If  a  Jewish,  a  Baptist,  or  a  Methodist,  or  a 
Catholic  congregation  or  individual  choose  to  start  schools  or  acade- 
mies, it  is  their  own  affair.  It  is  the  most  unblushing  kind  of  impu- 
dence to  ask  the  State  to  pay  or  contribute  for  private  schools  for 
particular  sects  of  religionists. 

But  it  is  also  worthy  of  attention  to  reflect,  that  if  this  proposition  to 
divide  the  taxes  raised  for  school  purposes  between  the  public  schools 
and  the  sectarian  schools  should  be  adopted,  the  very  object  which 
sectarians  who  make  that  proposition  have  in  view  would  be  defeated. 
For  if  it  were  carried  out,  and  if  the  State  government  were  thus  to 
raise  taxes  for  the  maintenance  of  the  sectarian  schools,  it  would 
certainly  also  have  the  right,  duty,  and  power  to  supervise  all  the 
matters  connected  with  those  schools.  But  the  governmental  inter- 
ference is  the  very  thing  that  the  sectarians  oppose.  They  therefore 
directly  contradict  themselves,  and  make  it  more  apparent  than  ever 
that  the  arguments  which  they  advance  are  mere  pretences,  and  that 
their  real  object  is  to  break  up  the  public-school  system  altogether. 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  135 

The  objection,  which  is  also  raised  by  some  foolish  or  extravagant 
sectarians,  that  in  our  public  schools  we  make  use  of  school-books 
which  reflect  to  a  great  extent  the  Protestant  creed,  and  of  song- 
books  that  contain  some  so-called  Protestant  hymns,  is  almost  too 
childish  to  need  refutation.  Jews,  Buddhists,  Biahmins,  and  un- 
believers in  general,  might  make  the  same  objection  to  the  use  of 
books  containing  the  names  of  God  and  Christ;  and,  carrying  out 
the  principle  still  further,  a  German  might  object  to  have  the  name 
of  Napoleon  mentioned,  a  Frenchman  to  allusions  to  Bismarck,  and 
an  Ameiican  Northerner  to  a  biography  of  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee.  If 
that  plea  had  any  force,  we  might  as  well  burn  up  our  whole  litera- 
ture;  and  no  Christian  child  ought  to  be  told -of  Socrates  or  Confu- 
cius, or  the  whole  line  of  heathen  gods,  which  Christians,  however, 
are  but  too  anxious  to  have  their  children  taught,  even  before  they 
can  comprehend  the  God  of  their  own  religion.  Is  there  a  sensible 
man  or  woman  among  the  Protestants  who  would  object  to  their  chil- 
dren singing  the  oratorios,  of  the  Catholic  Haydn,  or  those  magnificent 
masses  of  the  Catholic  Church,  some  of  the  grandest  of  which  have 
been  composed  by  Protestants?  Is  there  a  sound-minded  Roman 
Catholic  who  feels  it  an  insult  to  his  religious  convictions  if  his  or 
her  children  learn  the  grand  oratorios  of  the  Protestant  Handel,  or 
the  most  marvellous  of  all  works  of  that  kind,  the  Mathceus  Passio)i 
of  the  Protestant  Sebastian  Bach?  What  Protestant,  again,  does  not 
listen  with  the  same  devotion  as  a  Catholic  to  the  Ave  Maria,  written 
by  a  Protestant,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  set  to  music  by  a  Catholic,. 
Franz  Schubert?  If  the  grandest,  and  by  far  the  most  numerous 
productions  of  modern  literature  have  Protestants  for  their  authors,, 
should  the  future  generations,  on  that  account,  be  kept  in  ignorance 
of  them?  Culture,  to  be  thorough,  must  be  universal,  and  hence 
every  good  "  Reader  "  used  in  schools  must  contain  selections  from 
the  best  writings  of  the  most  cultured  men ;  from  the  writings  of  the 
Protestant  Shakespeare,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Catholic  Calderon  ; 
from  the  Puritan  Milton  and  the  Romish  Dante  ;  from  Kant  and  Aris- 
totle, from  Bacon  and  Confucius. 

As  this  objection  referring  to  the  text-books  and  music-books  used 
in  the  public  schools  has  been  raised  chiefly  by  Catholics,  it  may  not 
be  improper  in  this  connection  to  remind  them  that  of  all  the  libraries 
in  the  world,  that  of  the  Vatican  is  the  most  universal ;  of  all  the  art- 
galleries,  that  of  the  Vatican  the  most  comprehensive.     If,  then,  the 


13t)  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

popes  themselves  have  thus  not  only  authorized,  but  assisted  in  mak- 
ing collections  of  books  wherein  all  creeds  and  religions  are  repre- 
sented, and  have  spent  millions  of  dollars  in  the  perfection  of  gal- 
leries wherein  figures  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  Venus,  Christ  and  the 
Apollo,  are  exhibited  with  equal  prominence,  what  possible  scruples 
can  a  Catholic  layman  entertain  to  have  his  children  brought  up  in 
such  a  manner  that  they  may  be  able  to  appreciate  all  those  treasures 
of  his  Church? 

Supposing,  however,  that  a  State  government  were  to  adopt  this 
sectarian  scheme,  how  would  it  work  financially?  A  general  tax  for 
school  purposes  would  be  raised,  and  the  money  obtained  would  have 
to  be  equally  divided  in  proportion  between  all  the  schools  of  the 
community  on  which  that  tax  was  levied.  Any  private  individual  or 
any  corporation  might  start  a  school  or  set  of  schools,  and  no  matter 
how  worthlessly  they  kept  them  they  would  be  entitled  to  draw  their 
pro  rata  of  the  general  school-fund.  A  new  and  illimitable  field  of 
public  plunder  and  corruption  would  thus  be  opened,  and  while  the 
people  would  be  robbed  of  their  money,  their  children  would  be 
■cheated  out  of  a  proper  and  sufficient  education. 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


PART    SECOND. 


m7) 


PUBLIC    IXTEKCOMMUKICATION. 


GENERAL   PRINCIPLES. 

I. 

Having  shown  the  duties  of  the  government  in  regard  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  physical  liealth,  strength,  and  activity,  and  the  devel- 
opment of  the  intellectual,  inspirational,  and  moral  powers  of  its 
citizens,  in  order  to  prepare  them  for  the  fit  and  harmonious  use  of 
all  their  faculties  of  mind  and  body,  I  shall  now  specify  the  duties  of 
the  government  in  regard  to  the  intercommunication  of  those  citizens^ 
whereby  the  exercise  of  tlieir  social  and  political  functions  is  to  be 
protected. 

That  there  are  such  duties  should  admit  of  no  question.  Under 
cur  own  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  is  the  purpose  of  govern- 
ment to  guarantee  to  every  citizen  life,  liberty,  and  the  pui'snit  of 
happiness.  But  no  government  can  make  this  guarantee  unless  it  has 
supreme  control  over  all  the  means  whereby  to  make  it  valid. 

These  means  are  manifold,  and,  in  order  to  make  each  separate  one 
effective,  should  be  organized  into  a  complete  and  harmonious  sys- 
tem of  intercommunication.  It  is  to  be  accounted  one  of  the  great 
deficiencies  in  the  structure  of  our  federative  government  that  this 
organization  of  the  various  means  of  intercommunication  was  lost 
sight  of,  or  held  to  be  beyond  the  proper  scope  of  government. 
Hence  these  means  drifted  into  separate  and  unconnected  channels. 

It  is  very  instructive  to  observe  the  admirable  systems  organized 
by  men  for  the  management  of  their  private  business ;  and  tlien  no- 
tice the  reckless,  negligent  manner  in  which  our  public  affairs  are 
administered,  —  the  former  manifesting  economy,  industry,  integrity, 
prudence,  and  activity ;  the  latter,  extravagance,  fraud,  idleness, 
and  inattention.  It  is  evident  even  to  a  casual  observer  that  the 
conduct  of  our  public  administration  in  all  matters  of  public  inter- 

(139) 


140  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

communication  between  men  in  our  i-qpublic  has  allowed  them  to  pass 
under  the  control  of  selfish  political  schemers  and  corporate  des- 
[lotisms. 

When  a  private  citizen  establishes  a  business  of  any  kind,  he  is 
very  careful  to  see  that  each  part  of  the  work  is  organized  so  as  to 
fit  closely  into  all  other  parts ;  that  each  person  employed  shall  have 
a  specific  portion  of  duties  assigned  him,  and  that  the  rules  for  the 
government  of  all  these  persons  shall  be  fair  and  uniform  in  their 
application,  clearly  made  known  to  each  one,  and  strictly  enforced. 
But  in  the  administration  of  our  government  affairs  all  these  funda- 
mental rules  for  the  successful  management  of  private  business  are 
ignored  ;  and  even  this  great  function  of  government  itself,  —  to  se- 
cure and  promote  the  most  reliable  and  economical  means  for  uni- 
versal public  intercommunication  between  all  citizens, — has  been 
surrendered  and  turned  over  to  Federal  and  State  corporations,  at 
once  oppressing  the  people  and  embarrassing  the  government. 

The  Federal  government  has  divided  its  sovereignty  over  the  cur- 
rency of  the  country  with  national  banks,  in  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution ;  it  has  invited  competition  with  the  old  coin-monopoly  of 
foreign  nations  by  impolitic  discrimination  in  favor  of  gold  for  the 
payment  of  United  States  duties,  thereby  causing  legal-tender  notes 
to  suffer  a  discount  at  the  very  time  when  treasury-demand  notes 
receivable  for  duties  were  at  par  with  coin ;  it  has  granted  away 
its  supreme  control  over  territorial  and  State  highways  to  State  and 
Federal  railroad  corporations  created  by  Congress,  and  permits  them 
to  tax  the  travel  and  commerce  on  these  interstate  highways  without 
any  just  limitations ;  it  has  granted  to  telegraphic  monopolies  the 
right  to  control  on  their  lines  the  public  and  private  intercommuni- 
cation all  over  the  country,  and  to  levy  such  rates  of  tax  therefor  as 
the  corporators  choose,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  citizens  and  the 
government,  as  if  the  members  of  Congress  had  owned  in  their  own 
right  the  lands  and  moneys  belonging  to  the  people,  with  the  power 
to  donate  them  to  banking,  railway,  or  other  corporations. 

Many  of  the  State  governments  also  have  granted  away  portions 
of  their  sovereign  powers  and  vast  amounts  of  State  bonds  and 
monej's  belonging  to  their  citizens  to  like  corporate  railway  monop- 
olies, which  now  arrogantly  seek  to  control  those  State  legislatures 
and  judiciaries,  as  they  do  the  Federal  Congi-ess  and  the  judiciary,  by 
the  corrupt  use  of  their  great  money-power  and  influence. 


PUBt,IC    INTERCOMMUISICATION.  141 

All  these  charters  and  gifts,  fraudulently  and  corruptly  procured 
from  the  State  and  Federal  legislatures,  should  be  resumed  as  soon 
as  practicable  by  our  governments ;  and  if  such  corporations  liave 
acquired  vested  rights  that  cannot  immediatel_y  be  divested  other- 
wise, then  the  State  and  Federal  legislatures  should  establish  regu- 
lations and  rates  of  charges  for  them,  to  prevent  their  gross  extortions 
and  outrageous  mismanagement  and  the  daily  reckless  destruction  of 
human  life ;  and,  as  soon  as  practicable,  their  lands  and  railways 
should  be  declared  subject  to  condemnation  for  public  use,  their 
value  assessed  by  juries,  and  the  assessments  paid  over  to  the  owners^ 
thus  restoring  the  highways  to  the  people. 

It  is  a  fundamental  maxim,  in  the  administration  of  a  federative 
system  of  government  like  ours,  that  all  the  means  whereby  public 
intercommunication  between  the  citizens  of  the  several  States  and 
Territories  is  carried  on,  whether  through  a  money  medium,  railways, 
telegraphs,  police,  or  official  newspapers,  etc.,  should  be  subject  to 
the  exclusive  control  and  direction  of  the  Federal  and  State  govern- 
ments, according  to  their  respective  constitutional  powers  and  juris- 
dictions, so  as  to  secure  to  the  citizens  of  each  State  and  of  the 
United  States  a  perfect  legal  equality  of  rights,  and  prevent  usury 
and  extortion. 

All  existing  corporations  in  the  country  that  interfere  with  or 
obstruct  the  harmonious,  full,  and  just  administration  of  the  respec- 
tive State  and  Federal  governments,  established  by  their  founders  for 
the  security  and  promotion  of  the  common  good  and  happiness  of  the 
people,  should  be  abolished. 

All  existing  laws  tending  to  exempt  any  particular  person,  or  com- 
bination of  persons,  from  taxes  or  duties,  or  to  create  an}^  privileged 
classes,  corporations,  or  associations  in  any  State,  should  be  repealed, 
and  a  graduated  income-tax  substituted. 

The  Federal  and  State  constitutions  should  be  so  amended  that  the 
respective  legislatures  should  be  prohibited  from  granting,  leasing, 
or  disposing  of  the  whole  or  any  portion  of  the  sovereignty  or  fran- 
chises of  any  State  ;  and  from  granting,  selling,  leasing,  or  dispos- 
ing of  any  goods,  rights,  liens,  lands,  or  things  whatsoever,  except 
upon  public  notice,  under  general  laws. 

No  village,  city,  township,  county  or  State  in  the  republic  should 
have  any  power  to  issue,  sell,  or  negotiate  any  interest-bearing  bonds  ; 


142  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

and  the  national  government  itself  should  be  prohibited  from  issuing 
hereafter  any  interest-bearing  bonds. 

In  the  management  of  our  national  finances,  the  supreme  control 
having  been  vested  by  the  Constitution  in  the  Federal  government,  it 
is  necessary  for  it  to  assume  and  exercise  this  control  by  enacting 
laws  declaring  what  shall  be  the  national  money,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  money,  and  make  a  sufficient  quantity'  to  redeem  all  bonds 
and  pay  all  debts  of  the  republic,  so  as  to  create  a  circulation  that 
will  be  ample  for  the  development  of  industries  and  the  requirements 
of  trade,  and  at  the  same  time  free  the  nation  from  the  oppressive 
burden  of  interest. 

B}'  the  adoption  of  this  policy  thei*e  will  be  but  one  kind  of  money 
in  the  country,  secured  for  its  conversion  or  redemption  in  every 
article  offered  for  sale  or  export ;  in  all  the  lands,  natural  wealth, 
products,  taxes,  and  duties  of  the  entire  nation,  now  possessing 
larger,  more  available,  and  more  valuable  resources  than  any  other 
in  the  world. 

The  administration  of  our  governments,  State  and  Federal,  has  to 
a  great  extent  ignored  these  general  principles  for  the  preservation 
of  republican  libert}^  and  political  equality,  by  permitting  the  growth 
of  a  class  legislation  that  is  slowly  but  surely  absorbing  our  common 
franchises  and  liberties  by  the  creation  of  privileged  classes,  of 
gigantic  railway,  banking,  navigation,  and  telegraphic  corporations, 
who  will  at  length  possess  themselves  of  all  the  valuable  powers  of 
the  government,  and  inevitably  reduce  the  people  to  a  state  of  slaver}^, 
unless  measures  of  reform  are  adopted  befoi'e  these  despotisms  are 
too  firmly  established  to  be  overthrown. 

By  adopting  the  amendments  to  our  constitutions  indicated  in  this 
chapter,  and  inaugurating  an  organization  of  our  legislatures  and 
judiciaries,  State  and  Federal,  on  the  principles  sketched  in  the  first 
part  of  this  work,  the  people  will  become  in  reality  the  only  source 
of  political  power  in  the  republic,  under  wise,  harmonious,  and  just 
sj'stems  of  laws,  and  under  a  full  representation  of  all  individual 
citizens,  from  townships,  villages,  cities,  and  counties,  in  their 
primary  capacities. 

The  other  great  problem,  how  the  rights  of  each  State,  in  a  feder- 
ative SA'stem  like  ours,  and  the  proper  supremacy  of  the  Federal 
government,  can  be  secured  so  as  to  administer  the  laws  and  the 


PUBLIC    INTERCOMMUNICATION.  143 

governments  for  the  common  good,  without  tending  towards  central- 
ization or  disintegration,  have  also  been  examined  in  the  first  part  of 
this  book. 

II. 

The  main  purpose  of  this  work  is  to  show  the  defects  in  the  admin- 
istration of  our  present  systems  of  government,  and  to  suggest  rem- 
edies therefor.  The  most  remarkable  instances  of  maladministration 
in  our  Federal  affairs  have  occurred  during  the  last  ten  years,  some 
of  which  I  now  propose  to  notice  by  way  of  illustration. 

The  passage  of  an  act  of  Congress,  in  1863,  for  the  creation  of  the 
national  banks  was  directly  in  conflict  with  the  general  principles 
above  given  as  those  that  should  govern  the  management  of  the 
national  finances. 

In  1861  the  government  issued  sixty  million  dollars  treasury  demand- 
notes,  receivable  for  duties,  so  that  they  were  equivalent  to  coin  in 
the  New  York  market  during  the  war.  In  1862  about  two  hundred 
million  dollars  in  legal-tender  notes  were  issued,  receivable  for  all 
debts  except  duties.  Notwithstanding  the  ridiculous  inconsistency 
of  making  these  legal  tenders  inferior  to  coin,  and  inviting,  as  it  were, 
coin  gambling  and  a  decline  in  the  value  of  the  legal-tender  currency, 
no  serious  depreciation  of  them  occurred  until  the  issue  of  large 
amounts  of  Federal  bonds  and  the  passage  of  the  National-Bank  Act, 
in  the  spring  of  1863,  to  increase  the  currency.  This  new  currency 
was  to  be  issued  by  the  national  banks  upon  the  basis  of  Federal 
bonds  deposited  in  the  United  States  treasuiy,  to  secure  redemption 
in  legal  tenders.  There  was  no  valid  reason  for  adopting  this  scheme 
to  increase  the  circulation.  The  natural  and  reasonable  course 
would  have  l)een  to  issue  more  legal-tender  notes  if  they  were  needed. 

The  national-bank  expedient  was  infinitely  worse  in  its  effect  upon 
our  finances  than  a  direct  issue  of  one  thousand  million  dollars  of 
legal-tender  notes  would  have  been  ;  for  how  could  any  sane  man  have 
supposed  that  national-bank  notes  issued  by  the  treasury  upon  Fed- 
eral bonds  were  better  secured  than  legal-tender  notes  ?  This  national- 
bank  issue  was  based  upon  the  same  national  security,  and  was  re- 
deemable in  legal-tender  notes  ;  but  it  was  not  a  legal  tender  for  debts, 
which  made  it  an  inferior  currencj'.  The  whole  commercial  world 
regarded  this  scheme  as  a  mere   trick  to  bolster    up  the    national 


144  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

bonds,  and  the  immediate  effect  was  greatly  to  injure  and  impair  the 
public  credit. 

It  is  marvellous  how  any  honest  man  could  have  proposed  the  pas- 
sage of  the  National-Bank  Act  to  sustain  the  pubHc  credit,  when  by 
its  terms  the  government  agreed  to  pay  such  banks,  when  organized, 
twenty  million  dollars  in  coin  per  year  for  lending  three  hundred  and 
thirty-three  and  one-third  million  dollars  of  second-class  govern- 
mental currency  to  the  people  at  the  highest  rate  of  interest,  for  their 
own  profit.  No  spendthrift  heir  ever  sold  his  inheritance  at  more 
ruinous  rates.  Valuing  the  twenty  million  dollars  in  gold  paid  those 
banks  as  a  bonus,  at  the  currency  value  in  June,  1863,  and  estimating 
the  interest  thereon,  compounded  up  to  June,  1873,  the  banks 
would  have  realized  a  profit  out  of  the  bonus  alone  of  nearly  double 
their  total  circulation,  and  upon  the  circulation  itself  a  further 
profit  now  estimated  at  nearly  two  thousand  million  of  dollars. 

These  enormous  amounts  of  money  would  have  been  saved  to  the 
people  if  the  United  States  had  issued  the  three  hundred  and  thirtj'- 
three  and  one-third  million  dollars  in  legal-tender  notes  to  meet  war 
expenses  in  1863,  instead  of  chartering  national  banks  to  accomplish 
the  same  object  in  an  indirect  wa}^  whereby  the  national  ci'edit  was 
directl}'^  injured  just  in  proportion  as  that  notorious  scheme  of  finan- 
cial folly  was  manifestly  unprofitable  to  the  government ;  and  accord- 
ingly it  required,  in  July,  1864,  about  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
dollars  in  currency  to  buy  one  hundred  dollars  in  gold,  while  the 
legal- tender  demand  notes,  receivable  for  duties,  were  at  par  with 
coin,  as  the  common  greenbacks  would  have  been  if  receivable  at 
the  custom-houses  of  the  United  States. 

The  creation  of  these  great  mone3'-raonopolies,  with  their  extrava- 
gant largesses  from  the  government,  emboldened  shrewd  and  grasp- 
ing speculators  to  demand  and  obtain  from  Congress,  soon  afterwards, 
inestimably  valuable  railway  charters  for  roads  to  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  vast  grants  of  public  lands,  for  the  private  emolument  of  a  few 
favored  stockholders. 

These  two  schemes  for  using  the  sovereign  powers  of  Congress  to 
create  corporations,  to  use  the  public  highways,  the  public  credit, 
and  the  public  lands  for  private  profit,  are  the  most  gigantic  in  their 
results  of  any  recorded  in  history.  The  stockholders  and  managers 
of  those  corporations  have  probably  realized  in  money  and  in  lands 


PUBLIC    INTERCOMMUNICATION.  145 

enormous  values,  estimated  to  be  near!}''  double  the  whole  national 
debt,  and  now  control  the  legislation,  the  finances,  and  the  internal 
commerce  of  the  republic. 

III. 

There  are  other  defects  in  the  laws  for  the  administration  of  our 
State  and  national  governments  which  seriously  impair  the  public 
intercommunication  of  our  citizens,  that  should  be  remedied  at  once. 

We  require  a  State  and  National  pohce  and  registration  system 
that  shall  be  effective  for  the  protection  of  our  lives  and  property, 
our  political  franchises,  and  our  freedom  from  the  improper  interfer- 
ence of  others.  It  is  true  that  we  have  detective  police  systems  in 
larwe  cities,  but  they  are  wholly  unable  to  accomplish  the  desired 
results.  The  coming  iind  going  of  persons  to  and  from  the  republic, 
and  all  parts  of  it,  without  any  kind  of  I'egistration,  State  or  Federal, 
is  doubtless  a  very  convenient  arrangement  for  criminals,  assassins, 
house-burners,  and  others,  who  desire  to  prey  upon  citizens  and 
remain  unknown  ;  and  it  may  appear  to  be  an  easy  wa}^  for  the  citi- 
zens also,  who  will  thus  avoid  the  trouble  of  registration  when  they 
arrive  at  or  depart  from  their  residence,  or  other  places  in  the  republic  ; 
but  no  plan  of  human  construction  can  protect  men  in  their  "enjoy- 
ment of  life,  lilterty,  and  tlie  pursuit  of  happiness  "  unless  the  citi- 
zens are  willing  to  submit  to  the  siight  inconveniences  arising  from  a 
complete  practical  system  of  police  and  registration.  This  much- 
needed  reform  may  seem  irksome  at  first,  but  the  annual  increase  of 
our  terrible  record  of  crime  teaches  us,  that  if  the  criminal  classes  are 
not  to  rule  us,  instead  of  our  being  ruled  by  the  law,  we  must  render 
their  existence  a.nd  operations  next  to  impossible  by  the  inauguration 
of  thorough  police  and  registration  s^^stems,  State  and  Federal. 

The  numerous  selfish  combinations  whereb}^  railway  and  other 
monopolies  unite  to  raise  the  rates  of  freight  on  produce  and  manu- 
factured articles,  so  that  farmers,  miners,  and  manufacturers  are 
unable  to  transport  them  to  market  with'  any  profit,  demand  State  and 
Federal  legislation  for  their  suppression. 

I  may  here  repeat,  what  I  have  more  at  length  expounded  in  the 
first  part  of  this  work,  that,  together  with  the  inauguration  of  the  above 
reforms,  the  whole  body  of  our  State  and  Federal  laws,  civil,  criminal, 
departmental,  admiralty,    military,    naval,    and    interstate  national, 

10 


146  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

should  be  codifiea,  as  well  as  the  State  and  Federal  constitutions ; 
whereupon  the  whole  common-law  system  would  be  abolished,  with 
its  feudal  features,  monarchical  foundations,  and  its  more  than  eight 
hundred   years   of   judicial    discretion,   oppression,    and    conflicting 
cases,  the  published  reports  whereof  have  become  so  voluminous  that 
no  one  can  master  them,  and  but  few  law3^ers  afford  to  buy  them. 
Thus  has  arisen,  in  the  course  of  the  administration  of  justice  under 
the  common-law  system  in  England  and  in  our  country,  the  suggestive 
proverb,    "There    is    a    glorious    uncertainty    in    the    law."     The 
*'o-lory"   can  apply  only  to  the   lawyers   and  judges;  the  "uncer- 
tainty" is  well  known  to  the  people,  who  continually  suffer  from  it. 
There  should  not  be  any  such  inglorious  '•'•  xincertainty  m  the  law," 
for  it  is,  of  all  sciences  and  knowledge,  the'  most  important  to  the 
citizen,  who  is  presumed  to  know  it,  and  yjt  may  be  convicted  of 
felon}'^,  though  ever  so  innocent,  if  he  does  not  know  it.     But  who 
can  know  the  law  if  it  is  uncertain?     And  how  unjust  it  is  to  require 
obedience  to  and  enforcement  of  laws  that  are  uncertain  or  unknown! 
and  how  terrible  is  the  wrong  when  a  court  convicts  a  man  of  a  crime 
for  acts  done  that  were  not  known  at  the  time  of  their  commission  to 
be  criminal!     In  abolishing  the  common  law,  the  whole  sj^stem  of 
equity  law  should  be  buried  with  it,  being  based  upon  the  subterfuge 
that  equity  is  only  to  be  resorted  to  when  there  is  no  remedy  at  com- 
mon law.     Both  these  S3'stems  perpetually  increase  litigation  by  rea- 
son of  the  doubts  arising  in  man}^  cases  as  to  which  side  of  the  court 
a  party  must  apply  to  for  relief  or  redress.     There  is  no  occasion, 
in  free  States  like  ours,  for  the  use  or  practice  of  the  vexing  subtle- 
ties, mysteries,  technicalities,  and  absurdities  of  the  English  systems 
of  common  and  equity  law,  which  are  eminently  adapted  to  perpet- 
uate labor-slaver}^  pauperism,  monopolies,  loi'dl}'  oppressors,  and  the 
feudal  monarch}^  and  aristocrac)^  of  Great  Britain,  but  hot  to  promote 
the  happiness  of  a  free  people.     Moreover,  the  expenses  of  our  law 
and  equity  S3'stem  have  become  so  onerous,  by  reason  of  its  compli- 
cations and  absurdities,  that  a  thorough  codification  and  simplification 
of  the  laws  and  practice  is  imperatively^  demanded.     The  laws  can  be 
made  plain  and  simple,  and  easily  understood,  if  the  principles  are 
logical!}^  codified  and  plainly  stated  in  good  English,  with  all  neces- 
sary forms  of  procedure,  and  made  strictly  applicable  to  the  rights, 
duties,  and  obligations  of  all  citizens,  upon  the  common  understand- 
ing and  foundation  of  a  perfect  equality  of  rights,  duties,  and  obliga- 


PUBLIC    INTEItCOiMMUNICATION.  ^47 

lions.  This  was  done  in  California  in  1870,  and  has  proved  a  great 
blessing  to  the  people  of  tliat  State. 

We  should  place  our  whole  S3'steni  of  Federal  taxation  upon  a 
rational  and  economical  basis,  by  removing  all  duties  and  imposts 
whatsoever,  and  levy  only  one  income-tax  to  support  the  government, 
that  should  be  equitably  graduated  and  bear  ratably  equal  upon 
all  citizens.  The  tariff  system  is  so  expensiA'e,  oppressive,  unequal, 
and  changeable,  so  fertile  a  source  of  all  grades  of  crime  and  corrup- 
tion, that  as  soon  as  our  people  become  sufficiently  instructed  in  their 
public  duties  and  interests  to  establish  a  rational  money-system,  they 
will  abolish  all  tariffs  and  declare  free  trade  to  be  the  fundamental 
principle  of  our  commercial  intercommunication. 

We  should  not  permit  Chinese  labor-slaves  to  be  introduced  into 
the  republic  and  -sold  by  their  masters,  as  they  now  are.  We  should 
not  permit  the  importation  of  felons,  professional  beggars,  stolen 
children,  assassins,  and  vagrants,  the  dregs  and  wrecks  of  despotisms 
from  various  European  and  Asiatic  countries,  to  our  republic,  whereby 
their  decaying  society  is  relieved  from  the  terrible  intluence  of  such 
wretches  by  shipping  them  here,  to  coirupt  and  destroy  our  own. 
These  and  other  like  evils  would  be  readily  remedied  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  State  and  Federal  police  and  registration  system,  as 
herein  proposed. 

Every  foreigner  who  comes  to  settle  in  this  conntry,  and  applies 
for  admission  to  citizenship,  should  be  required  to  produce  before 
the  court  clear  proofs,  that  he  has  abandoned  his  allegiance  to  all 
rulers,  orders,  castes,  and  directors  whomsoever,  of  his  former  resi- 
dence and  country,  and  all  other  foreign  countries,  before  he  can 
demand  the  right  of  full  naturalization ;  that  he  is  not  polygamous, 
leprous,  or  beastial ;  and  if,  after  the  naturalization  of  any  person,  it 
shall  appear  that  he  still  acknowledges  or  yields  any  such  allegiance 
as  above,  proceedings  should  be  instituted  to  annul  the  certificate,  in 
any  court  having  jurisdiction,  and  pi'osecute  the  offender  for  perjuiy. 

Many  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  habitually  avoiding 
the  most  important  duties  they  owe  to  themselves  and  the  State  by 
neglecting  to  exercise  their  political  functions  at  primary  political 
meetings  and  as  voters,  thereby  surrendering  the  elections  to  mere 
politicians,  ward  managers,  ballot-box  stuffers,  and  demagogues,  and 
bringing  the  whole  system  of  political  management  into  conti'm[)t  and 
ridicule.     Laws  cannot  be  enforced  to  compel  citizens  to  vote,  but  if 


1^8  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

no  better  method  be  discovered  to  avert  this  growing  evil,  it  might  be 
provided  by  law  that  all  citizens  neglecting  to  exercise  the  elective 
franchise  for  two  consecutive  congressional  elections,  without  a  good 
excuse,  should  forfeit  their  right  to  hold  any  office  of  honor,  trust,  or 
profit  in  the  State  or  Federal  government.  Citizens  should  be  admon- 
ished and  warned  that  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  intelli- 
gentl}',  without  fear  or  favor,  in  a  federative  i-epublic,  is  a  sacred 
trust  imposed  upon  them  by  their  citizenship,  and  to  be  faithfully 
performed  at  all  times  wlien  the  laws  require  elections  for  officers  to 
administer  the  various  functions  of  government.  "The  price  of 
liberty  is  eternal  vigilance."  It  is  really  a  sort  of  petty  treason  to 
the  State  to  exhibit  carelessness  and  negligence  in  the  performance 
of  our  public  duties  as  citizens.  This  is  the  curse  of  all  our  American 
politics  and  laws ;  we  are  too  careless  and  indifferent  to  devote  time 
enough  to  examine  into  the  seaworthiness  of  our  ships  of  State  and 
the  manner  of  their  navigation  ;  we  stay  away  from  primary  meetings, 
from  the  polls,  from  the  courts  of  justice,  and  from  the  halls  of  legis- 
lation, as  if  we  could  avoid  or  remedy  the  maladministration  of  our 
public  affairs  by  hiding  from  them  in  a  spirit  of  cowardly  indiffer- 
ence. 

The  establishment  of  polygamy  in  the  Territory  of  Utah  by  the 
Mormon  hierarchy,  under  a  new  theocratic  despotism  claimed  to  be 
formed  for  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  and  the  influx  of  Asiatic  popula- 
tions into  the  Pacific  States  of  the  republic,  with  polygamy  estab- 
lished under  their  customs,  demand  a  remedy,  w-hich  seems  to  be 
unattainable  unless  the  national  Constitution  is  amended  so  as  to- 
invest  the  Federal  government  with  power  to  enact  la^vs  to  suppress 
this  great  evil.  In  that  event,  national  laws  should  be  enacted  estab- 
lishing the  monogamic  system  of  marriage  throughout  the  republic, 
and  prohibiting  polygam}^  in  all  its  forms,  thereby  saving  and  preserv- 
ing the  female  sex  fx'om  the  most  abject  slavery  conceivable,  which, 
during  all  recorded  time,  has  always  debased  them,  body  and  soul^ 
under  the  dominion  and  curse  of  polygamy. 

We  should,  finally,  establish  by  law  a  sj'stem  of  State  and  National 
newspaper  publications,  to  give  the  people  official  information  of  the 
most  authentic  character,  concerning  the  various  administrations  of 
our  governments  and  branches  of  the  public  service,  the  new  laws 
proposed  to  be  made  and  the  laws  made,  the  governmental  contracts, 
expenses,  revenues,  and  losses,  with  a  daily  history  of  all  the  events 


rUBLIC    INTERCOMMUNICATION.  149 

of  importance  transpiring  in  the  world,  without  any  editorial  com- 
ments. These  papers  to  be  furnished  free  of  charge  to  all  house- 
holders, heads  of  families,  teachers,  office  holders,  army  and  navy 
■officers,  including  subalterns  of  all  grades,  pensioners,  ex-members 
of  all  descriptions  of  offices,  and  such  other  citizens  as  may  be 
designated  by  law.  Such  newspapers  to  have  the  power  to  insert 
advertisements  of  all  business,  trade,  commerce,  etc.,  at  such  rates 
as  to  pay,  if  practicable,  all  the  expenses  of  the  publication. 

In  the  first  part  of  this  work  I  have  considered  the  measures  a 
government  based  upon  representative  republican  principles  ought  to 
adopt  to  secure  each  citizen  in  the  fit  and  harmonious  exercise  of  his 
functions  as  a  physical  member  of  the  world  of  nature,  and  have 
drawn  the  outlines  of  a  system  of  schools,  indicating  my  view  of  the 
raeasures  necessary  to  aid  and  protect  him  in  the  proper  exercise  of 
his  faculties  as  a  member  of  the  world  of  intelligence  ;  in  this  second 
part  I  shall  discuss  the  measures  necessary  to  be  adopted  and  en- 
forced by  the  State  and  Federal  governments  to  secure  all  citizens  in 
their  commercial  and  public  intercommunication  from  all  the  hinder- 
ances  and  obstructions  of  all  forms  of  monopoly  or  despotism. 

No  reforms  demand  speedier  attention ;  and  should  some  of  then: 
be  deemed  novel,  they  have  all  a  pressing  claim  upon  the  study  and 
attention  of  the  statesman  and  the  citizen.  The  preservation  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people  of  these  States  depends,  in  my  own  opinion 
upon  a  full,  thorough,  and  comprehensive  understanding  and  prac- 
tical adoption  of  the  plan  proposed  herein,  or  of  a  similar  one  in  all 
of  its  main  features. 

But  something  else  must  be  done  at  the  same  time  in  an  opposite 
direction.  There  has  been  growing  up  of  late  years,  in  Europe  as 
well  as  here,  another  species  of  despotism,  which  is  equally  destruc- 
tive of  the  just,  equal  rights  of  the  people.  This  is  known  variously 
as  Nihilism,  Communism,  and  Socialism.  It  works  in  the  dark, 
through  secret  societies,  and  seeks  to  make  a  propaganda  by  spurious 
promises  of  universal  equality  of  all  earthly  possessions  and  enjoy- 
ments. It  would  reduce  all  men  to  the  same  state  of  intellectual 
culture,  the  same  condition  of  financial  prosperity,  and,  indeed,  to  the 
same  condition  in  every  relation  of  life, — social,  political,  and  do- 
rnestic.  This  demand  has,  not  unnaturally,  sprung  up  in  the  minds 
of  extreme  fanatics  and  ignorant  followers,  from  the  almost  universal 
despotism  to  \vhich  nearly  all  the  nations  of  the  world  have  beea 


150  LIBERTY    AND    LAAV. 

subjected  by  the  few  governing  classes  during  nearly  the  whole  period 
of  man's  history.  It  is  an  extreme  reaction  against  an  extreme  evil, 
but  it  has  at  any  rate  no  reason  to  exist  in  this  republic,  if  the  true 
principles  of  Libert}^  and  Law  can  be  established.  I  have  treated  this 
whole  subject  in  a  special  chapter  of  this  part  of  the  book,  under  the 
heading,  "Capital  and  Labor,  or  the  Poor  and  the  Rich,"  and  have 
there  shown  how  the  despotism  of  the  Communist  and  Nihilist  must 
be  abolished,  as  well  as  that  of  the  corporations  and  other  monop- 
olies. And  this  can  be  done  only  by  the  impartial  rule  of  Law  and 
Liberty,  on  a  plan  of  government  similar  to  that  laid  down  in  this 
book. 


MO>JEY.  151 


MO^EY. 
CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN   OF   MONEY. 

In  the  most  primitive  condition  of  man  each  individual  furnished 
himself  his  own  necessities.  But  as  men  begin  to  associate  together 
and  live  ijii  society,  this  condition  changes,  and  each  one  seeks  to 
become  a  specific  worker  in  some  direction,  while  the  chosen  rulers, 
teachers,  etc.,*  are  engaged  in  no  work  at  all  directly  productive  of 
the  necessities  of  life. 

Thus  there  arose  a  system  of  barter  or  exchange  for  the  working 
men,  and  for  the  officials  a  system  of  payment  in  kind,  which  grad- 
uall}^  necessitated  a  system  of  tokens  whereby  to  effect  the  inter- 
change. There  being  yet  no  State  organization  sufficiently  developed 
to  make  any  token  —  no  matter  how  intrinsically  valueless  —  gener- 
ally current  by  guaranteeing  its  permanent  reception  as  such  token 
for  the  value  stated,  the  people  naturally  looklM  around  for  some 
substance  which  had  great  intrinsic  value  within  small  bulk.  It  was 
thus  that  gold  and  silver  —  sometimes  also  jewels  and  precious  stones — 
became  current ;  so  that  money,  being  virtually  under  no  control  of 
the  State,  except  so  far  as  its  coining  was  concerned  when  gold  and 
silver  began  to  be  coined  for  convenience,  became  a  power  over  the 
State  within  the  State,  and  a  continually  growing  source  of  monopolies, 
that,  in  point  of  fact,  took  away  from  the  poorer  class  all  their  rights 
and  privileges  by  a  system  of  most  cunningly  exercised  brokering 
and  commercial  despotism. 


152  LIBKKTY    AND    LAW. 

CHAPTER   n. 

ESrVENTION   OF   BANKING. 

Thus  money-brokerage  and  exchange  grew  into  a  despotism  more 
absolute  tlian  any  ottier  on  earth,  and  has  ever  since  retained  tliis 
despotic  power,  which,  wielded  by  men  unscrupulous  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  has  proved  the  greatest  scourge  of  the  human  race. 
For  gold  and  silver  assumed  a  far  greater  significance  than  their  own 
intrinsic  value  warranted,  the  moment  these  metals  became  the  gener- 
ally acknowledged  medium  of  interchange  among  nations  ;  since  that 
acknowledgment  made  them  virtually  representatives  of  all  the  inter- 
changeable commodities  on  earth,  thereby  increasing  their  value  in 
proportion  as  this  interchange  increased.  Thus,  with  the  growth  of 
trade,  commerce,  and  manufactures,  the  money-power  assumed  enor- 
mous proportions,  and  under  the  agency  of  shrewd  men  could  be 
handled  with  terrific  effect.  The  histories  of  Carthage  and  Tyre,  of 
all  the  great  "free"  commercial  cities  of  the  Old  World,  of  Phoe- 
nicia, Babylon,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome,  are  nothing  but  histories 
of  the  despotism  of  men  and  money-corporations  that  knew  how  to 
use  skilfully  this  potent  agency ;  and  in  later  times  the  same  phe- 
nomena reappeared  in  the  "free"  cities  of  Northern  Italy,  Venice, 
Genoa,  and  Milan,  where  a  few  capitalists  ruled  with  quite  as  severe 
a  rod  of  t3a-anny  as  any  emperor  or  king  of  history ;  na3',  often  even 
braving  the  whole  jJDwer  of  emperors  and  kings,  as  tlie  Rothschilds 
are  able  to  do  in  the  present  age. 

But,  as  Europe  began  to  advance  in  civilization,  all  the  gold  and 
silver  attainable  were  not  sufficient,  even  at  the  fabulous  value  to 
which  they  had  been  raised,  to  carry  on  the  necessarv  business  of 
this  new-grown  commercial  world,  and  it  was  the  necessity  to  provide 
for  this  state  of  things  which  led  men's  minds  gradually  to  a  proper 
notion  of  the  true  nature  of  money,  by  inventing  banking  and  ex- 
changes. Through  this  invention  the  commei'cial  world  was  supplied 
with  a  vast  accession  to  the  amount  of  money  current  in  gold  and 
silver,  an  accession  which  stimulated  and  made  possible  the  extraor- 
dinar}'  commercial  activity  of  that  period,  and  the  adventurous 
undertakings  to  which  it  gave  rise.     The  discoverv  of  America,  and 


MONEY.  153 

the  vast  amounts  of  additional  gold  and  silver  or  money  thereby  ob- 
tained, assisted  still  further  to  extend  this  prosperity  in  commerce, 
trade,  and  exchanges. 


CHAPTER    m. 

CREATION  OF  MONEY  OF  ACCOUNT  AND  OF  STATE  DEBTS. 

But  still  the  State  refrained  from  interfering  with  this  enormous 
power  of  the  moneyed  monopolies.  Within  the  political  States  of 
Europe  there  were  thus  always  two  other  despotisms  besides  tliat  of 
the  government  itself :  the  hierarchical  and  the  despotism  of  money  ; 
and  under  the  three  the  people  were  left  little  of  their  natural  liber- 
ties and  rights  indeed.  It  seems  strange  that  no  State  ever  conceived 
the  plan  of  taking  that  tremendous  power  of  money  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  financiers  by  establishing  a  money  of  its  own  ;  but  even  to-day 
the  old  state  of  things  continues,  in  a  measure,  as  it  has  been  shaped 
by  circumstances  and  innumerable  contradictory  individual  theories 
and  efforts.  John  Law,  it  is  true,  induced  France  to  adopt  a  policy 
of  national  bank  paper  money ;  but  the  attempt  to  give  it  a  coin 
basis,  joined  with  other  schemes  for  private  speculation,  caused  its 
failure  in  a  sudden  panic.  Thus,  for  a  long  time,  the  private  finan- 
ciers of  Europe  alone  had  the  power  to  increase  the  supph^  of  cur- 
rency by  the  banking  system,  using  drafts  and  letters  of  credit  as 
representatives  of  money  at  different  points  in  the  world ;  the  whole 
system  depending,  however,  upon  constant  renewal  and  extension, 
and  hence  constituting  those  drafts  and  letters  of  credit,  real  money 
in  all  respects,  or,  as  it  is  called,  monej^  of  account. 

The  modus  operandi  in  which  banks  manage  to  effect  this  inter- 
change of  money,  without  using  the  "real"  money  supposed  to  be 
at  the  l)ase  of  it,  I  cannot  describe  better  than  by  quoting  fi'om  an 
article  in  a  recent  number  of  Blackwood's  Magazine  on  "  Tlie  Rate 
of  Discount."  After  referring  to  the  fact  tliat  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
in  anal3'zing  the  nineteen  millions  of  the  receipts  of  the  banking- 
house  of  Roberts  &  Co.,  of  Lf)ndon,  found  that  only  three  per 
cent  of  these  receipts  Avere  in  cash,  the  ninet3'-seven  per  cent  being 


154  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

checks,  drafts,  and   other   means  of   exchange,  the  writer  of   that 
article  says :  — 

"  The  mystery  of  banking,  if  there  is  a  mystery,  will  be  unravelled 
b}'  discovering  what  these  ninety-seven  things  are.  What,  tlien,  are 
the}'?  Cheques,  bills,  dividend-warrants,  pieces  of  paper,  which 
have  debts  inscribed  on  them,  and  empower  a  bank,  if  it  chooses, 
to  demand  and  receive  the  several  sums  of  money  mentioned  on  those 
papers.  Palpably,  then,  on  its  receiving  side,  a  bank  is  a  collector 
of  debts.  These  debts  which  it  has  to  collect  are  its  resources. 
These  are  what  it  has  to  pass  on  and  lend  to  traders.  These  debts 
are  paid  to  the  bank,  beyond  doubt ;  but  in  what  form  ?  In  mone3\ 
the  cash  which  the  bank  indisputably  can  demand?  By  no  means. 
The  bank  does  not  ask  for  money,  nor,  as  to  these  ninety-seven 
things,  touch  it.  .The  mode  of  settling  these  debts  is  quite  a  differ- 
ent process.  The  banker,  whose  aim  is  profit^  finding  that  he  has  so 
many  debts  to  collect,  at  once  authorizes  some  borrowers  on  discount 
to  sign  fresh  pieces  of  paper  with  sums  of  money  inscribed  on  them, 
fresh  cheques,  and  to  buy  goods  with  them,  and  he,  the  banker,  un- 
dertakes to  pay  these  cheques  when  presented.  These  two  sets  of 
paper  —  the  cheques  which  the  banker  received  to  collect,  and  the 
cheques  which  he  empowered  his  borrowers  to  draw  upon  him  —  meet 
at  the  clearing-house,  and  there  cancel  each  other.  The  settlement 
of  one  set  of  debts  is  thus  effected  by  the  creation  of  a  second. 
The  final  result  at  the  bank  —  nay,  the  sole  action  of  the  bank  —  is  a 
registry  in  its  ledger  of  a  debt  which  it  owes  to  its  depositor,  and  of 
a  second,  or  counter-debt  which  its  borrower  owes  it  in  turn.  The 
resources  have  passed  through  the  bank,  have  travelled  from  one  set 
of  men  to  another,  and  all  that  they  have  actually  done  at  the  bank 
in  their  passage  through  it  is  to  cause  entries  to  be  made  under 
various  names.  These  entries,  this  action  of  the  bank,  required  no 
cash  whatever.  They  were  merely  items  of  accounts,  lines  in  the 
bank's  books,  recording,  indeed,  relations  of  debtor  and  creditor,  — 
still  in  themselves  only  figures.  The  cheques  were  not  cash,  and 
were  not  paid  in  cash.  All  these  paper  orders  to  pay  or  receive 
money  are  nothing  but  title-deeds  to  money, —  legal  evidence  of  debt, 
valid  and  possessing  worth  only  because,  as  evidence,  they  are  able 
to  persuade  a  court  of  law  to  send  the  sheriff  to  collect  the  specified 
money  from  the  debtor ;  but  a  title-deed  and  legal  evidence  able  to 
obtain  possession  are  not  the  property  itself.     Bej^ond  doubt  they 


MONEY.  155 

can  procure  money,  if  the  banker  asks  for  it ;  but  he  does  not,  and 
that  is  a  fact,  a  positive,  real  fact,  of  the  utmost  significance  for  un- 
derstanding the  nature  of  banking.  Money  demanded  and  retained 
would  bring  the  banker  no  profit,  whilst  permission  given  to  a  bor- 
rower to  draw  a  new  cheque  on  him,  enriches  him  with  a  charge  for 
interest.  Thus  he  collects  the  debt  which  the  depositor  gave  him  to 
receive  through  the  agency  of  a  third  person,  a  borrower.  Some- 
thing clearly  passes  througli  the  bank  by  means  of  these  two  entries, 
and  that  something  is  a  power  of  buying  goods  in  the  shops  and 
markets.  This  purchasing  power  is  what  the  banker  transfers  on  to 
the  borrower :  its  nature  and  action  we  must  now  proceed  to  investi- 
gate. 

'■'•  We  must  return  to  the  debts  sent  in  for  collection, —  the  cheques 
and  other  paper  orders  to  receive  money  paid  into  the  bank.  How 
do  they  originate?  They  are  all  at  their  origin,  omitting  subsequent 
transfers  after  they  have  reached  the  bank,  the  children  of  the  sales 
of  o-oods.  Let  us  appeal  to  the  actual  events  of  commercial  life,  to 
the  buying  and  selling  effected  by  means  of  banking.  A  farmer 
sells  to  a  miller  ricks  of  wheat  of  the  value  of  £1.000.  He  is  paid 
with  a  cheque,  which  he  deposits  with  his  banker  ;  but  of  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale  he  needs  only  £400  for  immediate  purchases  and  pay- 
ments ;  the  remaining  £600  he  will  not  require,  say,  for  three  months. 
These  facts  we  must  suppose  the  banker  to  know ;  so  he  at  once 
infers  that  of  the  £1,000  he  has  to  collect,  £400  will  be  needed  to 
face  the  cheques  drawn  by  the  farmer;  the  other £600  are  at  his  dis- 
posal for  three  months.  He  may,  if  he  pleases,  collect  the  whole 
sum  in  coin,  and  store  up  the  unneeded  portion  in  his  vaults ;  but  he 
does  not,  for  what  profit  would  he  then  get  out  of  banking?  That 
would  be  to  convert  himself  into  a  mere  warehouseman.  He  seeks  a 
borrower  ;  he  finds. an  iron-merchant  in  search  of  means,  and  he  lends 
him  £600  for  three  months,  on  the  discounting  of  a  bill.  The  mer- 
chant buys  iron,  pays  for  it  with  a  cheque,  and  all  the  three  cheques 
meet  at  the  clearing-house, — the  first  for  £1,000,  the  second  for 
£400,  and  the  third  for  £600,  —  and  there  clear  each  other.  The 
transaction  is  completed.  The  banker,  on  the  settlement  at  the  clear- 
ino'-house,  has  to  pay  as  much  as  he  received,  and  no  money  passes. 
The  farmer  has  parted  with  his  wheat,  which  has  been  exchanged, 
partly  for  some  goods  which  he  has  bought  for  his  own  use,  partly 
for  iron.     He  has  become  a  creditor  of  the  bank  for  £600,  and  the 


15 G  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

merchant  a  debtor  for  the  same  sum.  The  grand  final  result  is,  that 
goods  have  been  exchanged  for  goods ;  and  that  is  the  whole  of  the 
matter.  The  banking  has  been  mere  agency, — absolutely  nothing 
more.  The  banker,  manifestly,  in  all  this  has  been  simply  a  broker, 
an  intermediate  agent,  and  nothing  more,  —  a  man  who  brings  two 
other  men  together,  a  farmer  who  wants  to  lend  wheat,  and  an  iron- 
merchant  who  wants  to  borrow  iron." 

In  another  place  he  expresses  the  modus  operandi  still  more  con- 
cisely, as  follows :  — 

"By  the  simple,  but  effective  contrivance  of  a  bill  acknowledging 
a  debt  and  pledging  repayment  at  a  deferred  day,  the  trader  goes 
to  work  with  means  which  are  not  his  own.  The  large  manufacturer 
buys  his  cotton  or  wool  with  bills,  and  when  they  are  due  he  meets 
them  by  the  help  of  another  set  of  bills,  for  which  he  has  in  turn 
sold  his  merchandise.  These  —  the  bills  he  has  received  on  the  sale  of 
his  goods  —  he  gets  discounted  at  a  bank,  and  a  new  round  of  opera- 
tions commences.  So  it  is  with  the  merchant.  He  sells  a  cargo  at 
Calcutta,  and  is  paid  with  bills.  Without  the  assistance  of  a  bank 
he  must  have  waited  till  the  bills  were  paid  before  he  could  have 
gone  on  with  his  trade.  A  bank  takes  —  that  is,  buys  —  his  bills, 
and  furnishes  him  with  the  means  of  continuing  his  business." 

After  this  mode  of  creating  an  artificial  money  by  the  banking  sys- 
tem to  an  enormous  extent  had  been  developed  to  a  considerable 
degree  in  every  part  of  Europe  by  private  individuals  (the  Jews 
carrying  on  the  greater  part  of  the  banking  business  during  the  Mid- 
dle Ages),  the  governments  finally  bethought  themselves  that  they 
also  might  take  advantage  of  the  banking  system.  This  became  all 
the  more  necessary  as  their  expenses  for  maintaining  luxurious  courts 
and  standing  armies  increased  in  rapid  proportion.  But  instead  of 
issuing  letters  of  credit  they  issued  bonds,  and  with  the  beginning  of 
the  Napoleonic  wars  this  addition  of  money  values  flooded  Europe  in 
a  wonderful  way.  For  these  State  bonds  are  in  reality  also  nothing 
but  money,  their  improvement  on  the  letters  of  credit  or  paper  money 
lying  in  the  fact  that  they  bear  interest.  This  improvement  is,  how- 
ever, a  one-sided  ofie  altogether,  being  in  favor  of  the  capitalist  and 
against  the  tax-payers  of  the  State,  and  has  been  adopted  only  from 
supposed  necessity,  as  a  compromise,  inducement,  and  bribe  given  to 
the  capitalist  to  recognize  these  bonds  as  money. 

To  exhibit  the  way  in  wliich   money  values  have  in  this  manner 


MONEY. 


157 


been  added  to  the  representative  wealth  of  the  world,  let  us  consider 
the  following  table  of  the  comparative  debts,  iu  pounds  sterling,  of 
twenty-six  governments  in  1862  and  1872  :  — 


Argentine  Republic.    . 

Austria 

Belgium 

Bolivia 

Brazil    ....... 

Chili 

Costa  Rica 

Danubiau  Principalities 

Denmark 

Eg.vpt    ....... 

France  

Germany 

Guatemala 

Honduras 

Italy 

Japan    

Mexico 

Paraguay  

Peru 

Portugal 

Russia 


Sp 


Sweden  .  . 
Turkey  .  . 
United  States 
Uruguay  .  . 
Venezuela    . 


Total 


1862. 

1872. 

Increase. 

£3,000,000 

£17,500,000 

£U,.500,00(> 

250,000,(100 

300.000,000 

50,000.000 

26,2U0,0a0 

30,000,000 

3,800,000 

2,000,000 

2,000.000 

,5,00:),l)00 

60,000,(100 

55,000,000 

2,800,000 

7,.50(),0(10 

4,700.000 

3,4()0,oo;j 

3.400,000 

5,000,000 

5,000.000 

11,000,000 

12,«)0,()0.) 

1,. SCO.  000 

3,. '500, 000 

45,000,000 

41,700,000 

39(),00(l.000 

970,000,000 

574,000,000 

60.000,000 

120,00;»,0:;0 

60,000,000 

300,000 

(i(W,ooij 

3(10,000 

5,000,(100 

5,0011.000 

ioi),o()ii,ooo 

275,000,(10(1 

175,(100,(M() 

1,000,0(10 

J, (100, 000 

20,000,000 

60,0110,00.) 

40,000,000 

3,0(10  000 

3,0(111,000 

5,500,000 

37,000,000 

31  ,.100,000 

33,000,000 

65,000,000 

32.-)()  1,000 

230,000,000 

3.50,000,000 

1-20.0110,000 

150,0(10,000 

30(5,000.000 

15(5,000,000 

3,000,000 

6,000.000 

3,000,000 

23,000,(100 

i30,0(;o,ooo 

107,000,000 

75,000,000 

470,000,000 

395,000,000 

4,0110,000 

6,000,000 

2,000,000 

5,000,000 

8,000,000 

3,000,000 

£1,493,109,000 

£3,375,800,000 

1     £1,882,700,000 

A  very  noticeable  fact  in  this  list  is,  that  the  younger  States  of  the 
world  have  so  quickly  perceived  the  advantages  of  this  system  of 
creating  money-credits,  and  followed  so  successfully  in  the  tracks  of 
their  elders.  The  Argentine  Republic  increases  her  money-credits 
in  ten  years  from  $15,000,000  to  $87,000,000,  BoUvia  from  a  mere 
nominal  amount  to  $10,000,000,  Brazil  from  $25,000,000  to  $300,- 
000,000,  and  Egypt  from  $16,500,000  to  $225,000,000. 

All  in  all,  it  appears  from  the  above  table  that,  within  ten  years, 
twenty-six  governments  of  the  world  have  increased  the  amount  of 
money-bonds  circulating,  to  the  extent  of  $9,413,000,000;  England 
meanwhile  remaining  stationary  in  her  issue,  and  Holland  alone  reduc- 
ing her  debt  or  outstanding  funds  some  $35,000,000. 

I  may  add,  that  since  1872  some  $7,500,000,000  more  have  been 
added  to  the  national  debts,  most  of  which,  secenty-Jive  lumdred  mil- 
lions, has  been  spent  for  a  purely  destructive  object  —  war.  Within 
barely  three  centuries,  therefore,  the  above  countries  have  issued 
bonds  to  the  almost  incredible  sum  of  twenty-four  thousand  three 


158  LIBERTY    AND    LAAV. 

hundred  and  seventy-nine  million  dollars  ($24,379,000,000);  and 
most  of  this  money  has  been  used  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on 
wars  and  maintaining  standing  armies.  On  that  immense  sum  the 
people  of  those  countries  have  to  pay  steadily  increasing  interest. 
This  suggests  two  questions.  The  first:  Is  it  a  wonder-  that  there  is 
so  much  poverty  and  suffering  in  those  countries?  and  the  second: 
Since  those  bonds  pass  and  are  constantly  used  as  money  in  all  com- 
mercial and  financial  transactions,  and  since,  therefore,  that  amount 
of  money  must  be  necessary  to  suppl}^  the  wants  of  the  people,  why 
not  substitute  for  those  interest-bearing  bonds  non-interest-bearing 
national  legal-tender  notes,  which  would  serve  the  same  purpose  and 
relieve  the  people  of  the  immense  burden  of  taxation  resulting  from 
the  interest  that,  under  the  bond  system,  must  be  paid  on  those 
debts? 

But  these  natioy\al  debts  do  not  constitute  the  only  interest-bearing 
bonds  that  oppress  the  people.  Let  us  take  our  own  country  as  an 
instance :  The  census  of  1870  showed  that  the  aggregate  indebted- 
ness of  our  cities  and  towns  at  that  time  was  $328,000,000.  The 
statistics  for  1875  of  thirty-two  cities  alone  show  that  their  bonded 
indebtedness  was  then  $525,632,000,  which  was  an  increase  of  160 
per  cent  since  1870,  or  at  the  rate  of  32  per  cent  a  year.  The  in- 
crease in  Ohio  cities  had  been  for  those  five  3^ears  260  per  cent,  in 
Massachusetts  cities  130  per  cent,  and  in  New  York  cities  119  per 
cent.  Taking  70  per  cent  as  the  average  increase  for  the  five  years, 
and  making  allowance  for  the  sinking-funds,  it  is  estimated  that  the 
aggregate  indebtedness  of  cities  and  towns  in  1875  was  $700,000,000. 
The  debts  of  the  States  ($352,800,000)  and  counties  ($187,500,000) 
in  1870  amounted  to  $540,300,000.  If  these  debts  also  increased  at 
the  rate  of  70  per  cent,  they  must  have  amounted  in  1875  to 
$918,500,000,  and  the  total  indebtedne'ss  of  cities,  towns,  counties, 
and  States  at  that  time  must  have  been  $1,618,500,000,  or  about  $40 
l^er  capita  for  the  entire  population. 

(I  ma}'  mention,  by  the  way,  that  there  is  only  one  State  —  West 
Virginia — which  wisely  forbids  b}'^  constitutional  provision  the  con- 
traction of  a  State  debt. ) 

It  will  be  seen,  from  the  above  figures,  that  the  debts  of  our  cities 
and  towns  are  about  twice  the  amount  of  our  State  debts ;  and  to 
bring  the  matter  still  closer  home,  let  it  be  understood  that  those 
$700,000,000  municipal  debts  rest  upon  property  the  assessed  value 


MONEY. 


159 


of  which  is  $6,175,082,158, — that  is,  the  property  of  those  cities  is 
mortgaged  for  one-tenth  of  its  value ;  that  the  annual  taxation  of 
those  cities  and  towns  is  $112,711,275,  of  which  about  one-half  is  for 
interest  on  those  debts ;  and  that  the  burden  of  this  has  to  be  borne 
by  a  population  of  8,576,249.  How  this  operates  on  each  individual 
is  shown  by  the  following  table :  — 


Cities. 

Taxation. 

Poptila- 
tion. 

Taxation 
per  head. 

$10,000,000 
33,000,000 
3,000,000 
1,700,000 
12,000,000 
'6,100,000 
1,800,000 
4,100,000 
4,500,000 

341,109 
1,249,868 
260,000 
124,929 
860,000 
400,000 
203,439 
300,315 
400,000 

$29  00 

New  York 

CiiuMiiiiati 

Newark 

Philatlelphi.a , 

Chicago 

New  Orleans 

27  50 
20  50 
17  00 
15  25 
15  00 
15  00 
14  50 

St.  Louis 

11  11 

Compared  with  this  exhibit  of  municipal  wastefulness,  our  State 
governments  are  models  of  economy.  For  the  great  State  of  New 
York  taxes  its  citizens  only  two  dollars  per  head  ;  wasteful  Massa- 
chusetts only  four  dollars  per  head  ;  Illinois  only  one  dollar  and  ten 
cents  per  head,  and  Missouri  only  one  dollar  per  head.  And  the 
worst  of  it  is,  that  these  debts  are  constantly  increasing.  Within  ten 
3^ears,  city  debts  have  increased  two  hundred  per  cent,  taxes  eighty- 
three  per  cent,  and  populations  only  thirty-three  per  cent.  These 
are  frightful  figures,  and  there  is  only  one  remedy:  to  constitution- 
ally prohibit  all  States,  counties,  cities,  and  towns  from  contracting 
any  debt  whatever. 

It  may  be  interesting,  in  this  connection,  to  look  over  a  few  tables 
which  illustrate  the  facility  and  recklessness  with  which  governments 
and  cities  contract  these  enormous  burdens  to  be  borne  by  the  people, 
called  public  debts  :  — 

The  national  debt  of  England  (loan  from  bankers)  was  in  1689  .  £(5(;-t,2(!3 

William  of  Orange  increased  it 20,8;jl,47i» 


But  paid  off 


£21,515,742 
5,121,040 


Leaving  to  Queen  Anne's  administration £1(5,394,702 

Who  contracted  further  debts  of 35,750,(JG1 


Leaving  British  debt  in  1713,  at  the  peace  of  Utrecht  .     .     .     £52,145,363 

Then  George  I.  came  in,  and  with  him  the  system  of  funding  the 
pubUc  debt.     Under  this  system,  in  1748,  at  the  peace  of  Aix-la- 


160  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Chapelle,  the  debt  had  already  risen  to  £79,293,713  ;  and  at  the  close 
of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  which  brought  no  advantage  to  England,  in 
1763,  had  nearly  doubled,  being  then  £138,865,430.  The  American 
war  increased  it  still  further;  so  that  at  the  peace  of  Versailles, — 

In  1783,  it  had  again  nearly  doubled,  reaching  the  enormous 

figure  of £240,851,fl28 

During  the  next  ten  years  it  was  reduced 5,732,993 

Leaving  it  at  the  commencement  of  the  French  revolution- 
ary war      ....'....' £244,118,035 

Nine  years  later  it  was  more  than  double  that  amount,  being  then, 
in  1802,  £520.207,101.  The  wars  against  Napoleon,  which  also  did 
England  no  good,  left  the  national  debt  in  1814,  at  the  emperor's 
first  expulsion,  £742,115,067.  His  second  expulsion  required  another 
loan  of  £45.000,000,  and  increased  the  national  cTebt  to  that  extent. 
It  is  about  the  same  amount  now,  —  that  is,  £780,000,000.  The  inter- 
esting question  here  is,  whether  the  people  of  England  would  have 
voted  these  loans,  through  Parliament,  if  the  additional  debt,  incurred 
from  time  to  time,  had  been  levied  upon  them  directly,  and  if  they 
had  not  been  deluded  by  the  supposition  that  posterity  would  have  to 
pay  the  debt,  and  that  they  would  only  have  to  pay  the  annual  inter- 
est on  it?  As  Great  Britain  reaped  no  real  immediate  benefit  from 
those  wai's,  and  was  not  compelled  to  undertake  them  in  self-defence, 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  people  w^ould  have  voted  down 
each  loan  almost  unanimously,  if  they  had  been  told  in  dry  figures 
that  their  taxes,  which  in  1793  amounted  to  only  £17,170,400,  would 
within  twenty-two  years,  in  1815,  at  the  close  of  the  wars  against 
France,  amount  to  four  times  that  amount,  —  ?'.e.,  £70,403,448  a 
year.  Great  Britain,  however,  has  done  one  wise  thing  in  the  issue 
of  those  bonds,  in  that  it  has  made  them  irredeemable,  only  the 
interest  being  paj^able. 

We  have  another  illustration,  however,  closer  at  hand,  in  the  finan- 
cial experience  of  the  city  of  New  York. 

In  1830  the  pubhc  debt  of  that  city  amounted  to  about  $900,000, 
at  which  figure  it  stood,  with  small  fluctuations,  until  1836,  when  it 
was  increased  to  $1,282,103.58.  Seeing  how  easy  it  was  to  increase 
its  public  debt,  the  city,  in  the  next  3^ear,  nearly  doubled  it,  and  in  the 
following  year  again,  and  then  again,  so  that  in  1839  it  had  already 
reached  the  respectable  amount  of  $7,126,790.     This  was  still  further 


MONEY.  161 

increased  to  $13,316,292.86  in   1842,  at  which  figure  the  debt  re- 
mained stationary  for  full  ten  j^ears. 

During  the  decade  1852-1862  it  was  swelled  to  $21,695,506.88. 
Then  came  six  years  of  still  greater  extravagance,  increasing  the  debt 
from  $14,000,000  to  $35,983,647  in  1868.  One  year  more,  and  it  was 
$47,691,840.  Another  year,  and  $25,000,000  more  had  been  bor- 
rowed, making  the  debt  $72,373,552  in  1870.  Since  then  it  has  risen 
in  the  same  enormous  proportion. 

In  1871  it  was $88,369,38(5 

In  1872  it  was 95,582,153 

In  1873  it  was 100,363,471 

In  1874  it  was 114,979,970 

Thus,  in  nine  years  —  from  1865  to  1874  —  the  public  debt  of  the 
city  of  New  York  has  increased  from  $35,000,000  to  $114,000,000. 
Of  course  the  rate  of  taxation  has  increased  correspondingly,  to  wit: 
From  $2.51  in  1830  to  $4.33  in  1840;  from  $4.33  in  1840  to  $6.27 
in  1850;  from  $6.27  in  1850  to  $11.99  in  1860;  from  $11.99  in  1860 
to  $25.11  in  1«70;  from  $25.11  in  1870  to  $32.31  in  1874,  on  each 
inhabitant  of  New  York,  man,  woman,  and  child.  The  amount  of 
debt  to  each  inhabitant,  which  in  1830  was  only  $3.82,  has  now  • 
reached  the  enormous  amount  of  $114.98. 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  therefore,  this  increase  of  the  public 
indebtedness,  and  this  alone,  explains  the  increase  in  the  wealth  of 
almost  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  Tiie  wealth  of  the  United  States, 
for  instance,  which  was  about  $7,000,000,000  in  1850,  rose  to 
$16,000,000,000  in  1860;  then,  in  the  next  decade,  amidst  a  war 
which  destroyed  $9,000,000,000  of  property,  it  rose  to  the  enormous 
sum  of  $30,000,000,000,  and  could  never  have  assumed  these  vast 
proportions  had  not  the  issue  of  paper  money  and  bonds  furnished 
the  necessary  circulating  medium.  For  money  credits  can  be  quite 
as  readily  transferred  from  one  place  to  another  in  the  shape  of 
bonds  as  in  the  shape  of  notes  ;  and  hence  every  bond  serves  as  a 
means  of  exchaiige  between  the  various  cities  of  the  country,  and  in 
another  way,  too,  between  this  country  and  foreign  countries.  The 
issue  of  bonds  by  any  State  in  the  world  in  this  way  increases  by  so 
much  the  circulation  of  world-money,  and  contributes  to  the  wealth 
of  all  nations  using  them  as  exchange. 

11 


162  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

If  Great  Britain  uas  accumulated  more  wealth  since  the  beginning 
of  this  century  than  she  had  during  all  the  eighteen  hundred  years 
previous-,  the  explanation  can  be  seen  in  the  above  table  of  debts ; 
the  lienefit  of  which  Great  Britain  has  enjoyed  more  than  other  na- 
tions in  proportion  as  she  has  besii  the  chief  negotiator  of  most  of 
them,  and  has  been  able  to  use  successfully,  during  all  the  Napo- 
leonic wars,  the  national  currency  of  the  Bank  of  England  during  the 
long  suspension  of  specie  payments  occasioned  by  those  wars.  This 
absolute  and  irredeemable  money  has  given  her  a  monetary  suprem- 
acy over  all  the  nations  of  the  world. 

Again,  the  remarkable  prosperity  which  all  Europe,  and  partic- 
ularl}'  France,  enjoyed  since  the  close  of  the  frightful  Franco-Ger- 
man war,  when  every  one  expected  that  France  would  be  as  finan- 
cially ruined  as  she  seemed  to  be  politically,  is  properly  understood 
onl3^  by  looking  upon  the  issues  of  the  bonds,  or  rentes,  to  make  up 
the  five  milliard  loan  wherewith  to  pay  the  German  indemnity,  as 
so  much  circulating  wealth  added  in  the  short  space  of  two  years 
to  the  money  of  Western  Europe. 

Nothing  is,  therefore,  more  true  than  the  seeming  financial  paradox, 
that  the  contracting  of  debts  increases  the  circulating  exchange- 
wealth  of  the  world;  and  this  paradox  must  necessarilj^  remain  true 
until  all  the  nations  of  the  world  have  swept  away  their  debts  by 
substituting  paper  money  in  their  place,  and  issuing  enough  of  it  for 
the  requirements  of  their  States.  The  paradox  will  then  cease  to  be 
one  b3^  being  shaped  into  its  rational  formula:  that  the  issue  of  the 
necessary  amount  of  money  needed  by  a  State  is  not  in  the  nature 
of  a  debt,  but  the  prerogative  inherent  in  the  sovei-eignty  of  the 
State  to  issue  the  representative  of  the  entire  wealth  of  the  State,  if 
necessar3%  in  a  circulating  medium. 

Nothing  else,  moreover,  explains  the  extraordinary  fact,  that  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  and  Australia  did  not  produce  a 
steady,  decline  in  the  price  of  gold,  and  that  the  average  price  of 
wheat  is  to-day  nearly  the  same  as  it  was  in  1850,  when  it  was  about 
one  dollar.  What  a  great  outcry  was  then  raised  by  M.  Michel 
Chevalier  of  France,  and  De  Quincey  in  England,  about  the  ruin  im- 
pending over  the  world  by  reason  of  the  fall  in  the  price  of  gold  it 
was  supposed  would  necessarily  follow  those  discoveries.  If  gold 
had  then  been  and  had  continued  to  be  the  only  world-money,  their 


MONEY.  163 

prophecies  might  have  been  in  part  fulfilled.  But  the  fact  is,  that 
gold  had  ceased  to  be  the  only  world- money  long  before  then,  the 
infinitely  greater  part  of  that  money  being  made  of  paper,  —  in  the 
shape  of  checks,  drafts,  bonds,  etc.,  —  as  I  have  shown. 


CHAPTER     IV. 

THE   CURSE   OF   INTEREST. 

While  thus  in  one  respect  the  issiie  of  these  bonds  has  been  a  bless- 
ing to  the  people,  by  furnishing  them  the  needed  means  of  exchange 
values,  in  another  way  it  has  been  a  curse ;  and  as  curses  all  grow 
with  age,  so  the  weight  of  this  curse  is  to  be  felt  only  in  the  future 
in  all  its  crushing  power.  This  curse  is  the  interest  attached  to  the 
bonds,  — the  inevitable  coupon,  — for  which  the  State  that  issues  the 
bond  gets  nothing,  and  which,  with  its  accumulating  force  of  com- 
pound interest,  must  necessarily  ruin  every  State  ultimately,  or  force 
it  into  bankruptcy. 

This  curse  is  the  result  of  cowardice ;  the  State  being  afraid  to 
assume  the  same  power  which  some  few  banking-houses,  not  within 
one  million  times  so  wealthy  as  the  State,  are  superstitiously  sup- 
posed to  possess,  of  converting  their  issues  of  paper  into  money, 
which  is  the  real  philosopher's  stone.  Like  all  other  superstitions, 
this  one  will  have  to  be  swept  away. 

The  absurd  fact  is,  that  a  sovereign  State,  finding,  say,  one  hundred 
million  more  of  dollars  necessary  for  its  circulation,  did  not  dare  to 
meet  the  exigency  by  simpl^'^  making  the  amount  of  money  needed, 
but  in  a  roundabout  sort  of  way  issued  some  paper  money,  called 
bonds,  and  going  to  capitalists,  say  one  or  two  large  bankers,  like 
the  Rothschilds,  or  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  begged  them  to  be  pleased  to 
recognize  this  paper  money  as  good  current  money ;  which  these 
bankers  agreed  to  do  upon  payment  of  a  large  immediate  discount 
and  a  continuous  future  semi- annuity,  called  interest,  which  is  the 
tribute  paid  these  money-kings. 

The  State  having  agreed  to  the  terms  of  this  contract,  the  capital- 
ists put  the  profits  into  their  pockets,  and  told  the  people  of  the  State 


164  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

that  those  paper  moneys,  or  bonds,  were  good  current  money ;  and 
thus,  having  made  manifest  their  supreme  power  over  their  own  sov- 
ereign State,  looked  around  for  some  other  power  to  subdue  in  the 
same  manner,  by  compelUng  it  to  pay  interest  tribute. 

It  is  apparent,  that  when  a  whole  people,  constituting  a  State,  puts 
such  an  immense  monopoly  into  the  hands  of  a  few  capitg,lists,  either 
at  home  or  abroad,  it  must  be  ruinous  to  their  liberties  and  welfai-e, 
and  that  the  accumulation  of  interest  compounded  in  such  manner 
must  eventually  swallow  up  the  whole  property  and  values  of  the 
State.  Why  should  these  capitalists  have  the  power  to  say  what  is- 
money  ?  Why  should  not  the  people  themselves,  in  their  organic  law, 
decide  upon  this  matter,  and  agree  among  themselves  what  they  all 
intend  to  receive  as  money,  thus  all  pledging  to  each  one  the  security 
of  the  money  and  the  permanency  of  its  value  forever?  The  main 
objection  made  is  this :  that  so  long  as  each  State  of  the  world  is 
an  absolutely  separate  organization,  the  paper  money  of  one  State 
can  never  become  the  legal  currency  of  any  other  State,  and  that 
gold  and  silver  must  therefore  always  remain  the  only  possible  world- 
money.  To  what  extent  this  objection  is  valid,  and  how  it  is  to  be 
overcome,  will  be  considered  hereafter. 

There  is,  however,  still  another,  and  even  more  disastrous  view  ta 
be  taken  of  this  issuing  of  interest-bearing  bonds  by  a  State.  It  is 
virtually  the  mortgaging  by  the  State,  as  a  political  bodj',  of  all  the 
rights,  liberties,  wealth,  and  franchises  of  its  citizens  to  foreign  bond- 
holders ;  and  to  what  extent  this  can  be  carried  was  very  effectively 
shown  in  the  case  of  Mexico,  when  the  foreign  bondholders,  with  their 
claims  upon  the  State  of  over  eighty-thi-ee  millions  of  dollars,  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  their  European  governments  to  impose  a  foreign 
emperor  upon  the  Mexican  people,  plunging  them  into  those  fatal 
wars  that  were  to  end  in  the  tragic  death  of  Maximilian. 

Th^i  same  financial  fraud  is  now  transpiring  under  our  ej-es.  The 
khedive  of  Egypt  was  lately  compelled  to  become  a  fugitive,  not 
because  he  had  too  many  wives  for  European  conscience,  but  because 
he  owed  too  many  overdue  bonded  debts  to  agree  with  European 
conscience ;  and  his  brother  of  Turkey  is  gently  following  his  exam- 
ple toward  a  bankruptcy  .which  will  cause  the  dismemberment  of  the 
empire. 

No  State  government  should  have  the  power  to  sell  its  citizens  into 


MONEY.  165 

possil)le  foreign  slavery,  thus  laying  a  mine  under  the  political  fabric 
that  may  at  any  moment  shatter  it  into  fragments.  The  issue  of  bonds 
bearing  interest  is  the  exercise  of  such  power.  It  puts  shackles  on  a 
nation  even  more  effectually  than  a  mortgage  does  on  the  individual 
who  hypothecates  his  farm. 

The  issue  of  paper  money,  on  the  contrary,  has  no  such  enslaving 
power.  It  does  not  pretend  to  be  convertible  into  gold,  silver,  copper, 
lead,  wheat,  cotton,  or  other  articles  of  merchandise,  but  is  a  legal 
tender,  and  the  only  legal  tender  in  the  State  that  issues  it.  If  an 
international  clearing-house  be  established,  the  failure  of  any  State 
at  any  time  to  make  good  its  balance  in  the  values  agreed  upon 
between  the  several  nations  composing  the  clearing-house  would  not 
result  in  war,  but  simply  in  the  expulsion  of  such  nation  from  the 
clearing-house,  thereby  virtually  excluding  it  from  all  foreign  trade 
and  commerce  until  it  restored  its  credit  by  proper  measures. 

Still  more :  the  issue  of  jmjier  money  by  any  federation  of  States 
would  constitute  the  strongest  bond  of  union  for  its  citizens.  The  most 
vital  interests  of  every  one  would  be  enlisted  in  maintaining  the 
government  and  to  prevent  disintegration.  Our  late  civil  war  v/ould 
have  been  impossible  if  a  national  paper  currency  had  made  the 
fortune  and  prosperity  of  every  citizen  dependent  upon  the  main- 
tenance of  the  common  government  and  federation. 

And  in  a  similar  way  the  further  extension  of  such  a  system  of 
money  to  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth,  and  the  establishment 
by  them  of  an  international  clearing-house,  would  unite  all  those 
different  States  together  by  the  closest  possible  tie,  and  contribute 
more  than  any  other  measure  to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  war. 


CHAPTEE   V. 

THE   TEUE   NATUEE   OF   MOI^Y. 

The  true  theory  of  money  is,  therefore,  this :  Money  is  a  necessary 
means  of  intercommunication  between  all  the  citizens  of  a  State.  To 
leave  the  control  of  such  intercommunication  to  the  freaks  of  chance 
as  to  how  much  gold  and  silver  may  be  found  or  not,  or  to  put  it 


166  LIBERTY    AND    LAAV. 

within  the  power  of  any  body  of  men  conspiring  together  for  such 
control,  is  in  the  latter  case  to  endanger  the  liberties  of  all  citizens, 
and  in  the  former  to  leave  their  welfare  exposed  to  the  mercy  of  the 
elements  of  nature.  Hence  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  State  to  take 
the  matter  altogether  and  exclusively  under  its  own  control,  to  deter- 
mine what  shall  be  money,  and  to  provide  it  at  all  times  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  people,  increasing  the  quantity 
in  proportion  as  the  growth  of  the  trade,  commerce,  and  products 
of  the  State  require  it.  In  this  one  proposition  lies  concealed  the 
philosopher's  stone,  ages  have  exerted  their  best  efforts  to  discover. 

The  question  is,  how  much  money  should  be  issued?  The  whole 
amount  of  money  circulating  in  a  State  represents  the  whole  inter- 
changeable commodities  within  the  State  ;  hence  it  is  in  one  way 
altogether  the  same  how  much  or  how  little  money  the  fii-st  issue 
is,  that  issue  gaining  its  standard  of  value  not  from  its  convertibility 
into  coin,  but  from  its  convertibility  into  the  purchasable  products 
of  the  State.  But  as  gold  and  silver,  with  their  divisions  into  dollars 
and  cents,  have  once  been  adopted  as  a  standard  of  value,  it  is  as 
well  to  retain  that  standard  ;  and  hence  a  well-organized  State  should 
issue  in  tokens  of  the  least  possible  intrinsic  value  —  say  paper 
tokens  —  such  an  amount  of  dollars  and  cents  as  would  represent,  at 
the  adopted  standard,  all  the  interchangeable  commodities  of  the 
State ;  and  increase  this  sum  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  the 
commerce,  manufactures,  and  other  enterprises  and  riches  of  the 
State,  so  that  money  should  never  be  scarce,  but  elastically  adapt 
itself  to  every  change  in  the  demand  and  suppl3\ 

The  amount  needed  at  first  for  circulation,  as  well  as  the  successive 
additions  required,  can  be  determined  with  ease  by  a  proper  system 
of  statistics,  which  for  that  purpose  ought  to  be  gathered  at  least 
once  in  each  year,  and  can  be  for  many  years  admirabl}'^  regulated 
by  calling  in  the  outstanding  interest-bearing  bonds,  and  effecting 
those  internal  improvements  of  our  rivers,  railroads,  canals,  etc.,  of 
which  I  have  elsewhere  given  an  outline.  Thus  the  people  will  be 
at  all  times  supplied  with  money  sufficient  to  meet  their  wants  and 
circumstances,  as  they  ought  to  be  furnished  ;  since  money  is  as  nec- 
essary to  them  as  the  air  they  breathe,  and  must  be  furnished  them 
in  larger  proportions  as  they  grow  and  require  more  for  their  daily 
use  ;  and  they  would  be  relieved  of  a  burdensome  tax  called  interest. 


MONEY.  1(37 

which,  in  its  usual  compound  character,  is  ultimately  certain  to  im- 
poverish the  State. 

In  other  words,  money  must  be  made  a  blessing  to  the  people,  and 
not  remain  tlie  means  whereby  a  few  place  shacldes  on  the  man}',  and 
establish  the  most  oppressive  and  crushing  of  all  despotisms,  wliicli 
alwa3's  falls  with  double  force  upon  the  laborers  and  producers  in 
the  State. 

It  has  been  made  an  objection  to  such  money,  —  which,  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  stated,  must  be  of  a  substance  that  has  no 
intrinsic  value,  —  that  it  is  merely  an  issue  of  rags.  Indeed,  our 
present  legal-tender  greenback  has  again  and  again  been  ridiculed  as 
rag-money.  Unquestionably  our  greenbacks  are  made  out  of  rags. 
But  so  are  other  very  valuable  things, —  things  that  even  the  gold  men 
respect  very  highly.  What  is  our  flag?  Also  a  rag!  Of  what  are 
our  State  and  Federal  constitutions  made?  Not  of  gold  or  silver,  but 
of  rags!  Yes,  they  are  actually  printed  on  paper,  made  of  rags!  the 
same  constitutions  that  have  been  the  admiration  of  the  world  and 
the  pride  of  every  American  for  nearly  a  century,  and  will  remain 
so,  I  hope,  until  the  end  of  the  world.  What  are  our  Bibles,  prayer- 
books,  laws,  histories,  and  literature  made  of?  Rags!  What  are  the 
works  of  Homer,  Virgil,  Dante,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Dryden,  Scott, 
and  Shelley?  All  rags.  But  is  any  gold  man  so  fanatical  as  to  wish 
the  destruction  of  these  rags?  Is  one  of  them  so  reckless  as  to 
declare  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  invalid, 
because  they  are  printed  on  "rag  paper,"  even  as  our  greenbacks 
are?  Would  those  great  works  be  of  more  value  if  printed  on  gold? 
Does  not  their  whole  value  arise  from  the  sta;np  of  genius,  as  our 
paper  money  derives  its  whole  value  from  the  imprint  of  the  govern- 
ment? 

During  the  rebellion  there  were  men  who  spoke  of  our  flag  as  the 
"Federal  rag."  Who  dares  now  to  trail  it  in  the  dust  or  trample 
upon  it?  Not  even  the  gold  men,  who  did  their  best  to  dishonor  tliat 
flag  in  the  late  war,  to  increase  their  coin-  premiums.  Do  the}'  know 
what  that  "rag  flag"  represents?  The  whole  sovereignty  and 
power  of  the  American  people.  What  does  the  "rag  money"  rep- 
resent? The  sovereignty,  honor,  credit,  and  solvency  of  the  Amer- 
ican people;  and  whoever  insults  it,  equally  insults  the  "rag  flag." 
The  declaration  of  emancipation,  also  a  mere  piece  of  paper,  liberated 


168 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


slaves  valued  at  $4,000,000,000  by  their  man-buying  and  selling 
masters, — and  by  what  virtue?  Because  it  represented  the  sover- 
eignty and  power  of  the  American  peoi)le !  Would  it  have  been  more 
effective  if  engraved  on  gold  plates? 

Bnt  the  coin-worshippers  themselves  are  beginning  to  advocate  a 
money  system  which  is  essentially  based  upon  the  principle  that 
underlies  my  paper-money  system.  I  allude  to  that  portion  of  them 
who  advocate  an  unlimited  silver-money  issue. 

I  will  explain  this ;  first,  however,  premising  the  following  facts 
regarding  the  coins  of  the  United  States,  taken  from  a  work  on  the 
subject  by  Judge  Warwick  Martin.     These  coins  are  as  follows:  — 

First.  The  one-cent  bronze  coin,  under  the  law  of  1864,  is  com- 
posed of  ninety-five  per  cent  pure  copper  and  five  per  cent  tin  and 
zinc.  A  pound  avoirdupois  of  this  metal  costs  twenty-five  cents.  The 
pound  is  coined  one  hundred  and  sixty  cents,  the  legal  value  of 
which  is  $1.60.  The  commercial  value  of  the  metal  is  twenty-five 
cents,  which,  deducted  from  $1.60,  leaves  $1.35  us  the  difference 
created  solelj'  by  law.  This  money  is  now  legal  tender  to  the  extent 
of  twenty-five  cents  in  one  payment,  but  is  gladly  received  at  par  to 
almost  any  amount.  The  same  difference  will  be  found  in  the  two- 
cent  piece  created  by  the  same  law. 

Second.  The  five-cent  nickel  piece,  created  by  the  law  of  1866,  of 
which  there  are  now  $5,000,000  in  circulation,  is  composed  of  seventy- 
five  per  cent  copper  and  twenty-five  per  cent  nickel.  A  pound  avoir- 
dupois of  this  metal  will  coin  one  hundred  of  these  pieces,  the  leo-al 
value  of  which  is  $5.  The  pound  of  metal  costs  seventy  cents^  —  a 
difference  between  the  commercial  value  of  the  metal  and  the  leo-al 
value  of  the  coin  of  $4.30  in  favor  of  the  legal  value. 

Third.  Subsidiary  silver  coins  under  the  law  of  1853  were  a  small 
fiaction  over  seven  per  cent  light.  The  commercial  value  of  the 
metal  in  this  coin  would  be  seven  per  cent  discount  for  full  legal- 
tender  silver  coins ;  but  up  to  $5,  for  which  this  coin  is  made  by  law 
legal  lender,  the  money  is  equal  to  gold  in  the  United  States;  and  it 
is  paid  out  by  the  government  in  sums  of  $100  for  gold  coin  at  par. 
Al)Ove  $5  it  is  bullion,  seven  per  cent  light  weight,  in  the  hands  of 
tlie  people. 

Fourth.  The  subsidiary  coins  under  the  law  of  1873  are  made  to 
correspond  with  the  trade  dollar  of  420  grains,  and,  compared  with  it, 


MONEY.  169 

are  some  eight  and  a  half  per  cent  Hght,  and  with  the  trade  dollar 
are  legal  tender  for  $5  only.  Two  of  these  half-dollars  contain  385.8 
grains  standard  silver,  34.2  grains  less  than  the  trade  dollar.  The 
commercial  value  of  the  two  half-dollars  is  eight  and  a  half  per  cent 
less  than  the  dollar ;  but  the  legal  value  of  the  two  halves  and  of  the 
dollar  is  the  same,  both  being  legal  tender  for  $5  only. 

And  here  let  me  ask,  incidentally,  of  coin-worshippers  generally : 
What  becomes  of  your  theory  of  the  intrinsic  value  of  money,  if  you 
see  no  objection  to  coining  $1.60  worth  of  cents  out  of  a  pound  of 
copper,  the  "intrinsic  value"  of  which  is  only  twenty-five  cents;  to 
coining  $5  worth  of  •'  nickels  "  out  of  one  pound  of  nickel  metal,  the 
"intrinsic  value"  whereof  is  only  sevent}''  cents?  If  there  is  no 
objection,  why  should  objection  be  raised  against  paper  money  on 
that  score,  since  it  has  also  unquestionably  a  certain  "intrinsic" 
value,  —  the  paper,  cost  of  engraving,  etc.,  —  and  since  the  amount 
of  the  intrinsic  value  clearly  counts  for  nothing,  so  far  as  the  copper 
and  nickel  coins  are  concerned?  This  one  fact  alone  overthrows  the 
whole  "intrinsic  value"  theory. 

Another  point  in  this  connection :  Senator  Sherman,  in  a  speech 
•delivered  in  the  United  States  Senate,  after  stating  the  purport  of  our 
legal  tenders  to  be  as  follows:  "The  UNITED  STATES  promises 
to  pay  the  hearer  ONE  DOLLAR,"  proceeds:  — 

Tliis  note  is  a  promise  to  pay  one  dollar.  The  legal  effect  of  this  note  has 
been  announced  b}'  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  the  highest  and  final  judicial  authority  in  our  government. 
Thus,  then,  it  is  settled  that  this  note  is  not  a  dollar,  but  a  debt  due, — a 
promise  to  pay  a  dollar  in  gold  coin.  Congress  may  define  the  weight  and 
fineness  of  a  dollar,  and  it  has  done  so  by  providing  a  gold  coin  weighing 
25.8  grains  of  standard  gold  O.i)  fine.  The  promise  is  specific  and  exact,  and 
Its  nature  is  fixed  by  the  law  and  announced  by  the  court. 

Senator  Sherman  admits,  therefore,  that  Congress  may  define  the 
weight  and  fineness  of  a  gold  dollar.  It  has  defined  it  at  present 
at  25.8  grains  of  standard  gold,  0.9  fine.  Congress  having  thus 
al)solute  power  to  "define  the  weight  and  fineness  of  a  dollar,"  can, 
therefore,  even  according  to  Senator  Sherman,  and  indeed  all  the 
gold-coin  worshippers,  reduce  the  value  of  its  gold  dollars  to  any 
amount  it  pleases,  by  decreasing  the  standard  of  its  weight  and  fine- 
ness, —  making  it,  indeed,  so  low  that  a  gold  dollar  will  really  have 
no  more  intrinsic  value  than  a  well-engraved  piece  of  paper. 


170  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

In  regard  to  the  silver  coin  there  is  also,  as  will  be  seen,  a  differ- 
ence of  some  seven  per  cent  between  the  commercial  value  of  the 
metal  and  the  coins  themselves.  Whence  does  this  difference  arise? 
Why  should  twenty-five  cents'  worth  of  copper  metal,  when  coined, 
be  able  to  purchase  in  the  market  one  hundred  and  sixty  cents'  worth 
of  copper  coins?  and  ninety-three  cents'  worth  of  silver,  when  coined, 
be  able  to  purchase  one  hundred  cents'  worth? 

Is  it  not  evident,  then,  that  the  so-called  silver  men  are,  at  least  in 
theory,  advocates  of  my  system  of  an  absolute  national  money?  Do 
they  not  recognize  and  admit  that  it  is  simply  the  legal-tender  quality 
which  is  given  to  the  metal  by  the  government  stamp  and  authority 
that  causes  the  marvellous  transformation  of  value  in  silver  ;  and  that 
there  is  no  earthly  reason  why  that  same  sovereign  power  of  govern- 
ment could  not  be  exercised  upon  any  other  material  substance? 
Gold  and  silver  were  originally  selected  as  money-tokens  probably 
because  of  their  comparative  scarcity,  which  in  the  times  of  arbitrary 
despotisms  formed  a  sort  of  check  upon  the  money-issuing  power  of 
government.  In  republican  Sparta,  however,  this  was  not  considered 
necessary,  and  iron  was  the  metal  selected  for  coining.  But  under 
our  form  of  government  by  the  people,  there  is  no  danger  in  selecting  ■ 
any  sort  of  substance  for  the  purpose  of  converting  it  into  money. 
Besides,  silver  has  recently  been  discovered  in  quantities  so  large, 
that  were  it  not  for  the  large  demand  still  made  upon  the  metal  for 
coining  purposes,  its  "commercial  value"  would  sink  even  still 
lower  than  it  is  now ;  for  as  yet  nearly  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  in- 
cluding Great  Britain,  France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Germany,  Italy, 
Austria,  and  Russia,  use  subsidiary  silver  coins  in  whicli  the  commer- 
cial and  legal  values  differ,  as  they  do  in  England  and  the  United 
States.  And  silver  is  still  a  legal  tender  at  this  time  in  the  follow- 
ing countries:  France,  Italy,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Austria,  India, 
Netherlands,  Greece,  Russia,  Spain,  the  Argentine  Confederation, 
Bolivia,  Canada,  Chili,  Colombia,  Costa  Rica,  Ecuador,  Guatemala, 
Hayti,  Honduras,  Mexico,  Nicaragua,  Paraguay,  Peru,  San  Salvador, 
Uruguay,  Venezuela,  Morocco,  Ceylon,  China,  Japan,  Java,  Siam, 
and  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

How  greatly  this  demand  for  silver  for  coining  purposes,  and  the 
steady  increase  in  the  production  of  silver  from  mines,  affects  the 
commercial  value  thereof,  can   indeed   be  strikingly  shown    by  the 


MONEY. 


171 


fact  that  when  silver  was  demonetized  —  that  is,  constituted  no  lonoer 
a  legal  tender  for  any  but  very  small  suras  —  in  Germany  (1871) 
and  in  the  United  States  (1873),  the  price  of  the  metal  fell  in 
London  from  about  sixty  pence  per  ounce  to  forty-six  and  a  half 
pence  per  ounce.  And  although  it  has  since  risen  again,  owing  to 
heavy  demands  for  silver  from  China  and  India,  and  the  fact,  that 
the  United  States  has  reinstated  silver  as  full  legal  tender,  the  in- 
crease in  the  production  of  silver  is  so  much  larger  than  it  was  for- 
merly that  its  market  value  ma}'  at  au}^  time  fall  even  considerably 
lower  than  the  lowest  price  it  has  yet  reached.  This  increase  in 
silver  production  is  partly  indicated  by  the  following  tables:  — 

Estimate  of  Gold  and  Silver  Produced  in  the  United  States  from  1S45  to  1S79, 

inclusive. 

[From  Oiflcial  Reports  by  the  Direotorof  the  Mint  of  the  United  States.] 


Year. 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Total. 


1845 

1846 

1847 .     . 

1848 

1849 

1850 

1851 

1852 

1853 

1854 

1855 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

1860 

1861 

1862 

1863 

1S64 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 ,     .     . 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

Total  thirty-five  years 


11,008,327 
1,239,357 
889,085 
10,000,000 
40,000,000 
50,000,000 
55,000,000 
60,000,000 
65,000,000 
60,000,000 
5.5,'000,000 
55,000,000 
55,000,000 
50,000,000 
50,000.000 
46,000,000 
43,000,000 
39,200,000 
40,000,000 
46,100,000 
53,225,000 
53,500,000 
51,725,000 
48,000,000 
49,.')00,000 
50,000,000 
43/)00,000 
36,000,000 
36,000,000 
33,490,902 
33,467,856 
39,929,166 
46,897,^90 
51,206,360 
38,899,858 


$1,487,078,301 


From  1849  to 

185S. 

Estimated 

product, 

$50,000  per 

annum. 

(The  silver 

mines  of  the 

Unit'd  States 

were 

discovered 

in  1859.) 

1500,000 

100,000 

150,000 

2,000,000 

4,500,000 

8,500,000 

11,000,000 

11.2,M),Ono 

10,000,000 

13,500,000 

12,000,000 

12,000,000 

16,000,000 

23,000,000 

28,750,000 

35,750,000 

37,324,594 

31,727,560 

38,783,016 

39,793,573 

45,281,385 

40,812,132 


$1,008,327 
1,139,357 
889,085 
10,000,000 
40.000,000 
50.000,000 
55,000,000 
60,000,000 
65,000,000 
60,000,000 
55,0<J0,O00 
55,000,000 
55,000,000 
5O..500,OOO 
50,100,000 
46,1.50,000 
45,000.000 
43,700,000 
48,500,000 
57,100,a00 
64,475,000 
63,500,000 
65,225.000 
60,000,000 
61,500,000 
66,000,000 
66,500,000 
0-*,'750,000 
71,7.50,000 
70,815,496 
65,195,4rc 
78,712,182 
86,690,963 
96,487,745 
79,711,990 


$422,722,260    $1,910,400,361 


172  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

In  this  connection  the  following  tables  will  also  be  of  interest :  — 


I. 
Estimated  Annual  Production  of  the  Precious  Metals  throughout  the  World, 

A.  D.  1878. 

[Prepared  for  the  American  Almanac  by  David  M.  Balfour,  of  Boston.] 

AMERICA. 


Countries. 


British  Columbia  . 
United  States      .    . 

Mexico 

Central  America  . 
Colombia    .... 

Brazil 

Pei-u 

Chili 

Buenos  Ayres  .  . 
Argentine  Republic 
Other  countries  .    . 


Total $70,000,000 


Gold. 


$3,000 

36,000 

1,000 

10,000 

10,000 

4,000 

1,000 

2,000 

1,000 

1,000 

1,000 


Silver. 


,000,000 
000,000 
000,000 

,000,000 

,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
000,000 


Total. 


$3,000,000 

a3,ooo,ooo 

16,0(W,000 
11,000,000 
11,000,000 
5,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 


$76,000,000  $146,000,000 


Coujitries. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Total. 

Russia 

$17,000,000 
2,00l),()00 
1,000,000 
1,500,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 

$1,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 

$18,000,000 
3,000,000 
2,000,000 
3,500,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 

Austria 

Prussia 

France    

Sjiain 

Other  countries 

Total 

$23,500,000 

$7,000,000 

$30,500,000 

ASIA,   ETC. 


Countries. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Total. 

Japan      

$1,500,000 
5,000,000 
2,000,000 
6,000,000 

is,o(kj,ooo 

8,000,000 
5,000,000 
1,000,000 

$1,000,000 

$2,500,000 
5,000,000 
2,000,000 
11,000,000 
20,000,000 
9,000,000 
6,000,000 
2,000,000 

Borneo    

China 

Arcliipelago 

5,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 

Australia 

New  Zealand !....!! 

Africa 

Ocean  ica 

Total     .    .    . 

$46,500,000 

$11,000,000 

$57,500,000 

Grand  total  . 

$140,000,000 

$94,000,000 

$234,000,000 

MONEY. 


173 


11. 

Estimated  Amount  of  the  Precious  Metals  calculated  to  have  been  obtained 
from  the  Surface  and  Mines  of  the  Earth  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the 
close  of  1879. 

[Estimate  baseil,  in  part,  upon  a  work  on  "Gold  and  Silver,"  by  the  Russian  Councillor 
Osreschkolf,  published  in  1856.] 


Period. 


A.C 

A.D.  to  1492  .  .  . 
149:5  to  184'2  .  .  . 
184;?  to  1852  ,  .  . 
1853  to  18f>2  .  .  . 
1863  to  1879     .     .     . 

Grand  total 


Gold. 


Sillier. 


$1,415,000,000 
3,8-1-2,374,01 10 

•2,7-2t;,ooo,ooo 

907,000,000 
2,220,000,000 
2,958,000,000 


114,068,374,000 


f2,913.00(l,000 

5-21, III  10. (Kill 

5, SOU, 1100, (II  Id 

4")0, 00(1, (100 

5(;o,oo(),ooo 


Total. 


f(.:12x,000,000 
4.:;(m,:;74.ooo 
s,.v2r),oi  10,000 
1,:!57,000,000 
7SO,(IOO,000 


1,071,000,000         4,029,000,000 


$11,315,000,0001     $25,383,374,000 


III. 

Estimate  of  the  Aggregate  Production  of  the  Precious  Metals  in  all   Countries 
from  1493  to  1875. 

[From  A.  Soetbeer's  "  Edelmetall  Produktion  seit  der  Entdeckung  Amerikas  bi.s  zur 
Gegenwart."    Gotha,  1879.] 


Countries. 


Silver. 


Gold. 


Total. 


Germany 

Austria- Hungary 

Various  European  countries 

Russia 

Africa 

Mexico 

New  Granada 

Peru 

Potosi  (Bolivia) 

Chili 

Brazil 

United  States 

Australia ,    . 

Various  countries     .... 

Total 


$269,731,339 

264, 91!  1,603 

251,SS8.()04 

82,880,291 


2,600,280,659 


1, 005 ,357, 084 
1,286,999,94 
89,024,298 


179,874,123 
'  68,244,660 


$230,248,247 


507,749,653 
359,325,340 
130,174,396 
596,501,675 

80,327,582 
144,398,100 
129,467,140 
509,347,107 
995.126,015 
889,963,800 

74,4.58,346 


.$269,731, 33» 
491,209,850 
251,888,604 
590,629,944 
359,325,340 

2,730,4.55,055 
,596,501,675 

1,145,684,666 

1,431,398,047 
21S.49 1,438 
.509,317,107 

1,175,000,138 
8S9,9(  13.800 
142,702,340 


3,1.59,241,948 


$4,643,087,395 


$10,802,329,343 


One  of  the  strangest  facts  attending  the  late  remonetization  of  sil- 
ver in  our  country  is  this :  that  it  utterly  broke  down  the  exclusive 
rule  of  the  gold  men.  At  first,  when  greenbacks  were  not  yet 
made  receivable  for  duties  and  imposts,  the  metallic-money  advo- 
cates clamored  for  the  withdrawal  of  all  papei*  mone}^  crying  aloud, 
that  only  the  precious   metals  —  gold  and  silver  —  could  be  coined 


174  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

into  real  money,  —  money  of  intrinsic  value.  The  wonderful  dis- 
coveries of  silver  ore  in  the  Madre  and  Nevada  ranges,  soon  after 
occurring,  led  to  the  demonetization  of  silver.  For,  the  men  who 
monopolized  the  gold,  led  by  the  Rothschilds  and  other  Jewish  and 
Christian  bankers,  then  all  at  once  discovered  that  silver  was  not 
a  "precious  metal;"  it  being  understood  that  these  bankers  would 
not  be  able  to  control  the  money  market  if  the  gold  currency  — 
comparatively  of  small  amount  —  were  annually  increased  to  an  in- 
calculable extent  by  the  currency  manufactured  out  of  the  newly 
discovered  silver-mines.  Wh}^  the  control  of  the  world's  money 
would  pass  out  of  their  hands,  and  what  then  would  become  of  their 
"profits?"  It  soon  became  apparent,  however,  that  with  the  with- 
drawal of  silver  from  the  money  market  as  legal  tender,  universal 
bankruptcy  must  follow  hand-in-hand.  This  suited  the  banking 
people  well  enough,  since  it  would  enable  them  to  buy  out  farmers 
and  merchants  at  an  insignificant  sum  ;  but  it  did  not  suit  the  people. 
So,  after  a  long  and  bitter  fight,  the  people  succeeded  in  having  sil- 
ver remonetized  ;  and  behold  the  result! 

Offer  a  man  $1,000  of  "  precious  metal"  money  in  silver,  and  he 
turns  his  back  on  3'ou  in  disgust,  begging  on  his  knees  for  "  rag 
money"  in  place  of  it.  He  prefers  the  rag  even  to  gold.  Thus 
paper  money  at  once  became  again  the  favorite  medium  of  money 
exchanges,  and  the  remonetization  of  silver,  with  the  remonetization 
of  greenbacks  in  October,  1878,  by  receiving  them  for  duties  at  the 
custom-house,  has  made  the  greenback  even  the  superior  of  gold,  and 
at  a  considerable  premium  above  silver. 

But,  to  return  to  our  subject,  namely,  the  real  value  of  the  so- 
called  precious  metals,  when  considered  apart  from  the  value  artifi- 
cially given  them  by  using  them  as  the  exclusive  means  of  money 
exchanges.  Benjamin  Franklin  says:  "Gold  and  silver  are  not 
intrinsically  of  equal  value  with  iron.  Their  value  rests  chiefly  in  the 
estimation  they  happen  to  he  in  among  the  generality  of  nations.  Any 
other  well-founded  credit  is  as  much  an  equivalent  as  gold  and  silver. 
Paper  money,  well  founded,  has  great  advantages  over  gold  and  sil- 
ver ;  being  light  and  convenient  for  handling  large  sums,  and  not 
likely  to  have  its  volume  reduced  by  demands  for  exportation.  On 
the  ivhole,  no  method  has  hitherto  been  formed  to  establish  a  medium 
of  trade  equal  in  all  its  advantages  to  bills  of  credit  made  a  general 
legal-tender.^' 


MONEY.  ^  175 

But  in  spite  of  Franklin  and  other  eminent  American  statesmen,  it 
is  objected  that  this  plan  of  mine  of  a  new  money-basis  is  a  purely 
idealistic,  new,  visionar}^  and  altogether  impracticable  scheme.  Prac- 
tically, I  may  refer  to  the  fact,  that  the  Empire  of  Russia  has  such  a 
money  scheme  in  constant  operation.  It  is  very  true,  that  Russia  also 
recognizes  gold  and  silver  coins  as  legal-tender  money,  when  stamped 
with  the  stamp  of  the  Russian  government ;  but  it  is  none  the  less 
true,  that  the  Russian  government  has  issued,  and  does  continually 
issue  paper  tokens,  stamped  with  the  stamp  of  the  government,  which 
are  equally  legal  tender  throughout  all  the  dominions  of  Russia.  Its 
present  paper-money  circulation  is  about  $850,000,000,  and  irredeem- 
able in  coin.  In  the  same  way  the  French  Republic  authorized  the 
Bank  of  France  to  issue  so-called  irredeemable  paper-money,  besides 
coining  gold  and  silver  pieces  ;  and  that  irredeemable  paper-money  is 
there  a  full  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  duties,  and  taxes,  and  has  the 
same  value  in  the  money  market  that  those  gold  and  silver  coins 
have.  I  might  furthermore  add,  that  of  all  European  countries, 
France,  which  has  authorized  precisely  such  an  absolute,  irredeem- 
able paper-money  as  constitutes  the  basis  of  my  system,  is,  next  to 
Russia,  the  most  prosperous  nation  of  Europe;  that  England  owes 
its  financial  prosperity  altogether  to  its  paper-money  system, — for 
the  Bank  of  England,  suspending  specie  payment  as  it  does  in  any 
crisis,  ad  libitum,  is  virtually  organized  on  the  basis  of  the  system 
proposed  by  me  ;  whilst  the  German  Empire,  of  all  European  nations, 
most  stubbornly  given  to  the  notion  that  gold  metal  alone  is  a  proper 
measure  wherewith  to  interchange  commodities,  is  plunged  into  con- 
stantly growing  financial  distress. 

Now,  if  France  and  Russia  can  thus  make  use  of  irredeemable 
paper-money  as  a  medium  of  commercial  interchange,  with  evident 
advantage  to  the  citizens  of  those  nations,  and  if  one  of  those  coun- 
tries (Russia,  at  least)  has  done  so  for  3'ears  and  years,  why  should 
my  proposition  be  cried  down  as  an  innovation  upon  all  previously 
recognized  financial  maxims,  such  as  could  be  attributed  only  to  the 
wild  imagination  of  impractical  dreamers?  Nay,  have  we  not  our- 
selves had  and  used  every  hour  of  the  day  such  a  money  these  past 
eighteen  years,  and  found  it  to  enhance  our  national  prosperity  be- 
yond all  previous  experience? 

The  demonetization  of  silver  in  1873,  and  the  Specie  Resumption 
Act  of   1875,  to  destroy  the  greenback  circulation  in   1879,  caused 


176  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

such  distress  among  the  inanufactiinng  and  trading  classes,  that 
about 'eiglit  hundred  thousand  persons  were  driven  into  bankruptcy 
for  the  want  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  mone}'^  circulation.  The  remon- 
etization  of  silver  in  1878,  followed  by  the  order  of  Secretary  Sher- 
man to  take  greenbacks  at  par  with  gold  for  duties  on  and  after  the 
1st  of  October,  1878,  removed  the  impending  fear  of  the  greenbacks 
being  destroyed  in  January,  1879.  The  whole  paper  currency  of  the 
national  banks  and  the  greenbacks  —  about  $740,000,000  —  was  thus 
thrown  into  general  circulation  again,  and  the  coin  basis  became  a 
full  legal-tender  greenback  basis.  No  one  desired  a  coin  redemption. 
The  greenback  has  thus  become  the  equal  of  the  legal-tender  demand- 
note  of  August,  1861,  because  it  is  a  full  legal-tender,  subject  to  be 
redeemed  in  silver  on  demand  at  the  treasury,  and  in  gold  also,  if 
the  secretary  has  it  on  hand.  The  result  has  been  what  I  predicted 
it  would  be,  in  the  pamphlet  entitled  "  Gold,  Silver,  and  Paper  as  Full 
Legal-Tenders,"  published  in  February,  1877.  The  seven  years'  war 
of  the  money-power  to  destroy  the  greenbacks  and  return  to  a  coin- 
basis  S3'stem  of  banking  has  terminated  in  establishing  the  validity 
of  this  national  absolute  money  forever.  It  is  the  full  legal-tender 
quality  of  the  grfeenback  that  gives  it  value  for  circulation,  not  the 
provision  of  law  that  you  may  get  silver  coin,  or  perhaps  gold,  for  it 
at  the  treasury. 

Many  years  ago  one  of  the  foremost  of  German  patriots  and  phi- 
losophers, John  G.  Fichte, — the  first  of  his  age  who  foresaw  and 
foretold  the  unification  of  the  German  States  under  the  leadership  of 
Prussia,  —  urged  the  adoption  of  a  money  system  similar  to  that  pro- 
posed by  me,  mainly  upon  this  ground :  that  it  would  cement  a 
united  German  Empire  closer  together  than  an}'  other  measure  could 
effect ;  and  the  renowned  minister  of  Prussia,  to  whom  he  dedicated 
his  work,  —  Von  Struensee, — far  from  dismissing  the  scheme  con- 
temptuously, as  the  impracticable  dream  of  an  idealist,  gave  it  his 
careful  consideration,  and  expressed  to  the  author  his  high  apprecia- 
tion of  the  work.  The  proposition,  indeed,  is  very  simple :  A  nation 
requires  a  national  money.  It  must  be  a  separate  sovereign  financial 
body,  just  as  well  as  it  is  a  separate  sovereign  political  liody  amongst 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  They  must  accept  our  financial  as  well  as 
our  civil,  criminal,  and  political  legislation,  and  they  will  do  so.  A 
nation  cannot  afford  to  be  dependent  upon  foreign  countries  for  its 
money  medium  of  interchange  ;  nor  can  it  afford  to  be  dependent 


MOIMEY.  177 

upon  the  money-monopolists  amongst  its  own  citizens.  Omnipotent 
in  executing  its  own  laws,  in  calling  forth  armies,  in  building  fleets, 
and  providing  in  infinite  ways  for  tlie  public  welfare,  — ought  a  gov- 
ernment to  be  impotent  in  that  one  matter  of  creating  an  absolute 
money,  without  which  it  can  execute  none  of  those  prerogatives? 

"We  are  told  tliat  the  regulation  of  money  does  not  pertain  to  the 
functions  of  government,  but  should  be  left  exclusively  to  the  people 
themselves,  and  that  government  should  confine  its  activity  simply  to 
the  protection  of  the  life,  liberty,  and  property  of  its  citizens.  I  fear, 
however,  that  this  desire  to  limit  the  authority  of  the  government  as 
much  as  possible,  overleaps  its  own  object.  The  mere  fact,  that 
every  nation  has  been  compelled  to  erect  mints,  and  coin  the  gold 
and  silver  brought  to  them  by  impressing  the  government  stamp  upon 
the  metals,  shows  that  government  cannot,  at  any  rate,  leave  the  entire 
regulation  of  the  money  question  to  its  citizens.  It  must  interfere  to 
some  extent,  and  the  only  question  is,  how  far  its  interference  shall 
extend.  I  think  I  have  conclusively  shown  that  government  must 
take  control  of  the  whole  subject  of  money  issue,  and  forbid  every 
outside  interference  with  it.  Under  any  other  condition,  a  scientific 
money-system  is  impossible.  The  United  States  government  might, 
with  equal  propriety,  confer  its  political  and  sovereign  prerogatives  — 
to  make  war  and  to  levy  taxes  —  upon  the  States  and  private  corpora- 
tions, as  to  allow  the  States  and  banks  to  create  money.  The  Federal 
Constitution  speaks  in  unmistakable  terms  on  this  subject.  The 
founders  and  statesmen  of  our  republic  had  no  doubts  in  regard  to  it. 
They  saw  clearly  the  danger  of  giving  the  States  and  private  corpora- 
tions the  right  to  create  money.  They  wanted  the  nation  at  large  to 
be  the  exclusive  maker  of  this  money, —  the  nation,  which  alone  could 
afford  it  adequate  support  by  its  wealth,  sovereignty,  and  power.  But 
popular  prejudice  in  favor  of  specie  was  still  too  strong  for  them  at 
that  time.  Even  as  it  needed  "a  great  war  and  the  most  serious 
necessities  of  the  State  before  the  founders  of  the  Bank  of  England 
could  introduce  amongst  the  people  of  Great  Britain  the  blessings  of 
paper  money,"  to  which,  though  it  was  irredeemable  from  1797  to 
1822,  "that  country  has  been  mainly  indebted  for  its  subsequent 
prosperity,"  ^  so  it  required  a  great  civil  war  and  irresistible  necessi- 
ties to  force  our  government,  in   1861-4,  into   the   doing  of  what 

1  The  "Economy  of  Capital,"  by  R.  H.  Patterson,  p.  450.    . 

12 


1  78  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

should  have  been  done  at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  our  Union : 
the  issue  of  a  national  money,  not  redeemable  in  specie,  but  made  by 
law  a  legal  tender  all  over  the  country,  and  receivable  by  the  gov- 
ernment for  all  taxes  and  dues,  with  the  unfortunate  exception  of 
duties  and  imposts,  for  which  only  the  demand-notes  of -1861  and 
specie  were  made  receivable.     All  that  remains  to  be  done  now  is  to 
carry  out  that  system  of  legal-tender  money  to  its  logical  complete- 
ness, in  making  it  also  receivable  for  imposts  and  duties  by  act  of 
Congress,  in  repealing  the  acts  creating  the  national  banks,  and  re- 
deeming their  notes  with  the  new  government  legal-tender  money, 
and  in  issuing  that  money  for  the  purchase  and  cancellation  of  our 
interest-bearing  bonds,  thus  making  it  the  only  money  in  the  country, 
and  thereby  demonetizing   gold  and  silver   forever.     The    national 
banks  will  thus  be  divorced  from  the  treasury  and  from  Congress, 
and  it  will  be  their  interest  to  organize  under  State  laws  as  joint- 
stock  banks,  subject  to  similar  regulations  as  those  that  the  national- 
bankincr  laws  now  impose  upon  national  banks.     The  unthinking  and 
io-norant  may  call   this    a  visionary,  impractical   scheme,  the    mere 
suggestion  of  which  would  be  received  everywhere  out  of  America 
with  laughter  and  ridicule.     It  may,  therefore,  not  be  inappropriate 
here  to  state  that,  apart  from  the  proofs  furnished  by  the  critical  and 
historical  parts  of  my  book  on  "Absolute  Money,"  which  demon- 
strate clearl}^  that  the  financial  world  has  steadil}^  drifted  nearer  to 
the  adoption  of  such  a  money  scheme  as  I  have  proposed,  and  apart 
from  the  open  advocacy  of  such  a  national  paper-money  system  by 
the  most  brilliant  American  statesmen  of  ever}'  period  of  its  histor3% 
from  its  foundation  to  the  present  time,  it  has  numerous  supporters 
amongst  the  foremost  of  European  financiers.     In  illustration,  I  will 
cite  only  one,  Mr.  R.  H.  Patterson,  an  Englishman,  a  Tory,  and  a 
thorough   conservative,   who  is  recognized   as  the   ablest  writer  on 
finances  in  all  England,  and  from  whose  writings  I  have  quoted  liber- 
ally in  various  parts  of  this  book. 

The  gist  of  m}'-  whole  money-scheme  lies  in  the  true  definition  of 
money,  as  I  have  elaborated  it  in  that  book ;  and  this  is  what  Mr. 
Patterson  says  on  the  subject:  — 

"The  quality  which  gives  to  gold,  paper,  and  other  substances 
their  circulating  power  as  money,  is  simply  the  agreement  on  the 
part  of  nations  to  recognize  those  substances,  either  of  themselves 


MOI^EY.  179 

or  when  presented  in  certain  forms  as  representatives  of  wealth."! 
And  again  :"  Demonetize  gold,  *  *  *  and  no  man  would  give  a 
dollar  for  a  whole  ounce  of  it.  *  *  *  It  would  descend  from  its 
high  estate  to  the  rank  of  an  ordinary  metal."  And  on  page  25: 
"  Demonetize  the  precious  metals,  and  a  laborer  would  no  longer  give 
a  week's  work  for  a  bit  of  gold  and  silver,  which  he  could  do  nothing 
with  except  to  give  to  his  wife  as  an  ornament.  Men  would  no  longer 
consent  to  be  paid  in  bits  of  metal  which  no  grocer,  or  butcher,  or 
tailor  would  accept  in  exchange  for  his  goods." 

In  another  part  of  his  work  (pp.  447,  451)  he  expresses  himself 
as  follows :  — 

"  Paper  money  has  already  established  itself  as  a  representative  of 
gold  money  ;  what  it  must  next  do  is  to  establish  itself  as  a  substitute 
for  gold  money,  just  as  the  gold  coins  of  old,  from  being  representa- 
tive of  oxen,  became  by-and-by  a  substitute  for  them  in  commercial 
transactions,  and  invested  with  a  recognized  value  of  their  own. 
*  *  *  Startlingly  various  as  are  these  forms  of  currency,  [in 
various  parts  of  the  world]  they  all  agree  in  this:  that  they  are 
recoo'nized  by  the  people  as  niediums  of  exchange,  and  this  is  the 
sole,  indispensable  requisite  of  any  form  of  money.'' 

This,  however,  is  only  a  collateral  plea  in  favor  of  my  money-sys- 
tem, which  must  stand  or  fall  by  its  claim  that  it  is  the  only  rational 
scheme  of  finance  in  this  new  era  for  a  cooperative  government,  such 
as  ours  professes  to  be.  This  claim  I  have  endeavored  to  substan- 
tiate to  the  best  of  my  ability  :  firstly,  negatively,  by  showing  that  all 
other  systems  of  money — whether  of  gold  or  silver  coins,  or  paper 
money  issued  on  a  so-called  specie  basis,  or  on  collateral  interest- 
bearing  bonds,  or  on  real-estate  mortgages  —  are  inadequate,  produc- 
tive of  financial  disasters,  and  oppressive  upon  the  people  ;  and  sec- 
ondly, affirmatively,  by  showing  that  ray  system  of  absolute  money  is 
adequate  for  all  possible  contingencies,  subject  to  no  fluctuations,  and 
the  cheapest,  while  at  the  same  time  the  safest,  of  all  money-issues. 

Another  prominent  writer  on  the  subject  recognizW  the  urgent 
necessity  of  introducing  such  a  S3^stem  of  an  absolute  national 
money,  on  the  principles  stated  by  me,  in  the  following  words:  — 

"yl  declared  value,  backed  up  by  the  honor,  faith,  and  stability  of 
an  enlightened  government,  is  the  only  kind  of  a  vcdue  which  can  ever 


See  "Economy  of  Capital,"  p.  20. 


180  LIBEIiTY 'AND    LAW. 

he  considered  a  standard  or  fixed  value.  Gold  and  silver,  pearls  and 
diamonds,  cowrie  shells  and  copper,  cloth  and  ivory,  are  sure  to  have 
a  fluctuating  value,  and  human  legislation  nor  arbitrary  edict  can  ever 
fix  an  unalterable  value  upon  them. 

"But  with  the  government  paper  token  there  need  hardl}'-  be  any 
variation  in  the  supply,  and  none  in  the  value.  A  rapidJy  groiving- 
country  like  the  United  States  would  of  course  need  to  increase  its  vol- 
ume of  paper  money  at  certain  times,  so  as  to  keep  pace  with  the  exten- 
sion of  its  commerce  ayid  the  accumulation  of  actual  wealth  in  the 
shape  of  population,  improved  farms,  enlarged  cities,  increased  pro- 
ductions, etc.  The  time  is  fast  ripening  for  a  broader  consideration 
of  the  question  of  what  shall  be  the  money  of  civilized  nations,  than 
has  heretofore  been  accorded  to  it.  The  commerce  of  the  world  has 
to  a  great  extent  been  carried  forward  upon  faith  in  others.  Prom- 
ises to  pay  coin  have  accomplished  more,  and  still  accomplish  more,, 
than  payments  of  coin.  With  this  fact  as  a  central  plank,  cannot  a 
grand,  international  financial  platform  be  erected,  upon  which  all 
enlightened  nations  may  equally  and  securely  rest?  " 

I  shall  show,  further  on,  that  my  system  of  an  absolute  national 
money  tends  precisely  to  the  establishment  of  such  an  international 
financial  platform,  through  an  international  clearing-house,  and  partly 
also  through  international  postal,  savings,  and  exchange  banks. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

HISTOEY   OF   OUR  PAPER   MONEY. 

In  the  year  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  the  Unitecl 
States,  the  Continental  Congress,  having  no  control  of  sufficient  gold 
and  silver  to  carry  on  the  Revolutionary  war,  was  forced  by  that  great 
exigency  to  establish  a  paper  currency,  and  authorize  the  issue  of 
such  monejias  the  only  available  means  for  exchanging  values  and 
prosecuting  the  conflict  with  Great  Britain  to  a  successful  issue ;  but 
it  had  no  clear  comprehension  of  the  sovereign  right  of  the  new 
republic  to  create  a  national  money  of  its  own.  During  the  year 
1776,  $20,000,000  were  issued,  and  before  the  close  of  the  war  more 
than  $357,000,000  of  Continental  currency  was  in  circulation  in  the 
United  States. 


MONET.  181 

While  the  colonists  were  battling  for  their  right  to  a  free  repre- 
sentative government  against  the  despotism  of  tlie  British  Parlia- 
ment, they  (lid  not  seem  to  be  aware  of  the  fact  tliat  an  equall}' 
•dangerous  money-despotism,  controlled  and  wielded  with  great  skill 
by  their  adversary,  could  be  counterbalanced  only  by  a  national 
financial  system  of  their  own  creation.  To  a  certain  extent  this  was 
accomplished  by  the  plan  adopted  ;  but  if  that  Congress  hud  made 
its  currency,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  money,  a  legal  tender 
for  all  demands,  public  and  private,  secured  as  it  would  have  then 
been  by  the  wealth  and  resources  of  the  nation,  even  then  a  permanent 
national  money-system  would  have  been  established  by  the  new  re- 
public, facilitating  the  triumph  of  its  arms,  compensating  it  for  the 
great  losses  and  expenses  of  the  war,  and  at  the  same  time  breaking 
the  shackles  of  the  coin-despotisms  of  the  Old  World  in  our  republic, 
which  to  this  day  continue  to  oppress  and  embarrass  our  people. 

The  Continental  money  was  created  merely  as  a  temporary  war- 
measure,  necessary  to  insure  success  to  our  arms  in  that  memorable 
conflict,  and  was  redeemable  in  gold  and  silver  of  foreign  countries  ; 
but  as  soon  as  the  crisis  was  over  it  was  repudiated  in  bad  faith,  to 
tlie  ruin  of  many  patriotic  soldiers  and  citizens,  and  the  injury  of  our 
national  credit  and  financial  standing  among  nations.  If  that  cur- 
rency had  been  made  a  full  legal-tender  when  issued,  the  total  amount 
of  the  issues  would  not  have  been  one-fourth  of  the  amount  repu- 
diated in  1782-3,  and  would  have  greatly  added  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  people  of  the  States,  by  giving  them  a  universal  national  money- 
medium  of  intercommunication  to  develop  their  inexhaustible  re- 
sources, to  unfold  to  full  activity  all  the  producing,  manufacturing, 
trading,  and  commercial  industries  of  the  people,  and  to  defend  them 
-against  and  emancipate  them  from  all  foreign  as  well  as  domestic 
monetary  monopolies.  After  that  repudiation  great  financial  distress 
ensued,  paralyzing  all  kinds  of  business  for  the  want  of  money  to 
carry  it  on,  until  the  year  1791,  when  the  establishment  of  a  United 
States  bank  by  Congress  relieved,  in  a  great  degree,  the  previous 
money-pressure. 

The  charter  of  that  bank  expired  in  1811,  and  no  other  money- 
tokens  remaining  but  gold  and  silver,  and  a  small  quantity  of  State 
bank-notes  based  on  coin,  wholly  insufficient  in  quantity  to  furnish  a 
circulating  medium  for  the  increasing  business  and  commerce  of  the 
people,  another  period  of  suffering  for  the  want  of  money  ensued, 


182  LIBERTY    AXD    LAW. 

and  the  wax*  of  1812  with  Great  Britain  so  increased  it,  that  a  second 
United  .States  bank  of  issue  was  chartered  for  twenty  years,  in  1816, 
wliich  again  temporarily  relieved  and  restored  the  business  activity  of 
the  people. 

Meanwhile  the  States  of  the  republic  began  to  charter  banks,  with 
power  to  issue  paper  money,  in  violation  of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, although  the  Federal  .Supreme  Court,  under  the  pressure  of  an 
apparent  public  necessity,  held  their  charters  to  be  valid.  The  paper- 
money  issues  of  the  Federal  and  State  banks  furnished  a  large  addi- 
tion to  the  circulation  and  exchanges  ;  but  different  kinds  of  money 
were  thus  introduced,  in  addition  to  coin,  and  the  almost  universal 
depreciation  of  the  value  of  many  of  the  State  bills,  at  any  consider- 
able distance  from  the  place  of  their  issue  and  redemption,  injuriously 
affected  business  and  commerce,  by  subjecting  such  bank-note^  to 
brokerage  discounts,  and  thereby  forcing  the  banks  into  a  continual 
warfare  with  each  other,  to  compel  coin  redemptions  for  the  protec- 
tion of  their  several  issues. 

This  kept  alive  and  flourishing  the  coin-basis  system  of  finance, 

and  finallv  created  a  conflict  between  the  Fedei'al  banks  and  State 

« 

banks,  that  culminated  in  1833,  when  President  Jackson,  espousing 
the  cause  of  the  State  banks,  compelled  the  government  moneys  to 
be  removed  from  the  United  States  Bank  to  certain  State  banks,  which 
became  the  depositories  of  the  public  moneys  and  the  authorized 
agents  of  the  treasurv.  The  opi)osition  of  the  president  and  the 
Democratic  party,  and  the  removal  of  the  deposits,  caused  the  down- 
fall of  the  Federal  bank,  and  the  national  credit  and  monej'S  passed 
to  the  State  braiks,  that  were  thenceforth  known  as  "  pet  banks." 

Then  arose  an  era  of  irresponsible,  illegal  .State  banking,  upon  a 
coin  basis, — fraudulently  so  called,  —  controlled  exclusivel}^  by  pri- 
vate corporations  of  the  States,  for  their  own  profit,  resulting  in 
enormous  issues  of  paper  money,  causing  an  extravagant  inflation  of 
the  currency,  and  increasing  speculative  manias  to  such  an  extent, 
that  nearly  all  those  banks  suspended  in  1837,  with  an  irredeemable 
currency  flooding  the  country.  The  universal  distress  and  prostra- 
tion of  all  business  and  trade  was  such  that  Congress  passed  acts,  in 
1837,  1838,  and  1839,  for  the  issue  of  treasury-notes  to  the  amount 
of  $10,000,000  in  each  of  those  3'ears,  for  the  relief  of  the  people,  by 
furnishing  them  a  national  money  amply  secured  by  the  credit  and 
vast  resources  of  the  republic. 


MONEY.  183 

These  laws  gave  some  temporary  relief  to  the  extraordhiary  strhi- 
gency  of  the  money  market,  but  the  government  did  not  yet  perceive 
the  true  remedy  for  financial  revulsions  to  be  a  national  currency,  and 
these  wise  acts  were  repealed  in  1841,  and  Congress  in  the  same  year 
deemed  it  necessary  to  pass  a  national  bankrupt  act. 

Those  State  banks  that  did  not  forfeit  their  charters  or  discontinue 
their  business,  one  after  another  resumed  specie  payments,  and  the 
working  of  the  monetary  system  under  their  management,  from  1843 
to  1861,  illustrated  the  ruinous  results  arising  from  the  delegation  to 
States  or  corporations  of  the  sovereign  power  of  making  money  or 
issuing  notes  on  a  coin  basis  to  form  a  circulating  medium  for  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  That  system  of  a  coin  basis  has  invari- 
ably failed;  as  it  had  failed  in  1809,  1816,  1821,  1827,  1837,  and 
1842,  so  it  now  again  failed  in  1846  and  1857. 

This  frequent  recurrence  of  panics  during  that  period  demon- 
strated the  fallacy  of  keeping  up  a  permanent  circulation  of  paper 
money,  issued  by  divers  State  banks,  that  was  always  to  be  redeem- 
able in  specie  on  demand.  The  mutual  jealousy  of  such  banks  will 
ultimately  reduce  the  circulation  to  the  coin  on  hand,  and  a  great 
scarcity  of  money  will  ensue ;  or  if  the  issues  greatly  exceed  the 
specie  in  their  vaults,  and  a  demand  for  gold  arises,  as  in  1837-57, 
the  banks  so  organized  must  suspend  specie  payments,  to  the  ruin 
and  distress  of  all  persons  depending  upon  their  circulation  for  the 
transaction  of  business.  The  producing,  laboring,  manufacturing, 
and  trading  citizens  of  the  United  States  have  lost  in  the  years  prior  to 
the  rebellion,  by  this  coin-basis  system  of  finance,  over  one  thousand 
millions  of  dollars. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  our  civil  war  in  1861,  the  Federal  govern- 
ment had  no  paper  money  outstanding,  and  gold  and  silver  were  its 
only  recognized  standards  of  value.  It  immediately  became  apparent, 
that  sums  of  money  immensely  beyond  the  sum  of  all  the  gold  and 
silver  ou  hand  would  be  needed  to'  supply  the  sinews  of  war;  and 
the  stringency  seemed  all  the  greater  in  that  the  effects  of  the  mon- 
etar}'  crisis  of  1857-8  had  not  yet  passed  away.  Tiie  State  banks 
had  already  proved  wholly  inelHcient  for  managing  the  monetary 
affairs  of  tlie  nation  in  time  of  peace,  even  with  the  assistance  of  the 
sub-treasury,  organized  in  1846  ;  and  no  other  course  remained  open 
than  the  oi'ganization  of  a  mone}-  system  independent  of  coin,  and  in 
July,  1861,  the  issue  of  $60,000,000  of  demand-notes,  receivable  for 
duties  and  imposts,  was  authorized  by  Congress, 


134  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

But  the  government,  instead  of  continuing  the  money  policy  thus 
inaugurated,  and  of  making  all  its  issues  a  legal  tender  for  all  debts 
tliereafter  contracted,  changed  the  issue  in  1862  to  legal-tender  notes, 
receivable  for  all  delits  except  coin  interest  on  bonds,  and  duties  and 
imposts.  Four  hundred  naillion  dollars  of  this  currency  were  issued 
in  1862-3  ;  and,  to  make  it  the  supreme  paper-money  of  the  country, 
a  heavy  tax  was  levied  upon  the  circulation  of  the  State  banks,  which 
were  thereb}'  virtually  suppressed. 

It  may  be  worth  while,  even  after  so  long  a  time  has  passed  away, 
to  recall  more  in  detail  that  disgraceful  action  of  Congress  by  which, 
in  1862,  the  greenbacks  were  thus  virtually  demonetized,  since  they 
no  longer  were  receivable  for  duties  and  imposts ;  for  it  was  this 
demonetization  which  gave  rise  to  that  scandalous  gold  and  silver 
speculation  which,  from  the  date  of  the  passage  of  that  bill  to 
some  eighteen  months  ago,  swept  over  the  whole  country,  and  — 
demoralizing  ])rivate  individuals  as  well  as  business  men,  ruining 
countless  families,  destroying  commerce,  and  culminating  in  the  Black 
Friday  — died  graduall}^  away,  only  to  give  our  business  world  the 
:il)pearance  of  a  once  fertile  and  prosperous  country  over  which  a 
deadly  simoom  or  a  gigantic  cloud  of  locusts  had  made  a  devastating 
passage. 

On  the  sixth  day  of  February,  1862,  the  House  of  Representatives, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  issue  of  the  $60,000,000  demand-notes  had 
been  exhausted,  passed  a  bill  authorizing  tlie  issue  of  $150,000,000 
more,  having  the  same  virtues  of  being  full  legal-tender  and  receiv- 
able for  all  debts  and  demands  due  to  the  United  States,  and  for  all 
snlaries,  dues,  debts,  and  demands  owing  by  the  United  States  to 
individuals,  corporations,  and  associations  within  the  United  States. 
rUe  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  ninety-three  to  fifty-nine.  But  no  sooner 
had  its  contents  been  made  known  than  all  the  banking,  brokering, 
<•  .'in-speculating,  and  bondholding  sharks  sent  off  delegation  after 
<'u'legation  to  Congress,  urging  its  amendment  so  as  to  make  those 
r.otes  not  receivable  for  interest  on  bonds,  and,  finally,  also  not 
Tcceivable  for  duties  and  imposts.  These  amendments  the  Senate 
■was  induced  —  by  what  means  it  is  unnecessary  to  suggest  — 
lo  annex  to  (he  House  bill  ;  and  the  bill,  so  amended,  was  then 
passed  in  the  Senate  l\v  a  vote  of  thirty  to  seven,  and  returned 
to  the  House  on  tlu'  14ili  of  Februar}'.  Owing  to  the  pressing 
necessities  of  the  civil  ^x-av.  the  House  was  constrained  to  pass  it  on 
Ihe  2-4th,  by  a  vole  of   nine! y-scven  lo  twenty-two.      Thus  were  the 


MONEY.  185 

most  sacred  interests  of  the  people,  especially  of  the  producing 
classes, — the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  the  manufacturer,  and  the  la- 
boring man, — grossly  and  wickedly  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the 
money-power  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  The  Senate  at 
that  time  was  a  small  body,  but  twenty-four  States  being  represented, 
with  but  three  or  four  members  whose  ability  was  above  mediocrity. 
The  occupants  of  seats  once  filled  by  statesmen  whose  ability  and 
eloquence  had  made  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  famous  through- 
out the  world,  were  now  puffed  up  with  ideas  of  self-importance  which, 
with  the  venality  of  the  majority  of  that  body,  made  them  an  easy 
prey  for  the  sharks  of  Wall  Street.  It  will  be  observed,  that  the 
points  contended  for  so  strenuously  and  successfully  by  the  con- 
ference committee  of  the  Senate,  who  represented  the  sentiment  of 
the  majority  of  the  body,  were,  in  substance  and  effect,  the  same  as 
those  contained  in  the  plan  of  the  bankers  offered  at  their  meeting 
which  convened  in  Washington  immediately  after  the  introduction  of 
the  legal-tender  bill  in  the  House.  That  the  Senate  was  controlled 
in  its  action  in  regard  to  the  legal-tender  bill  by  improper  influ- 
ences is  not  a  matter  of  conjecture,  but  history.  In  his  speech  at 
Philadeli)hia,  January  15,  1876,  Judge  Kelley  says:  "  I  remember 
the  grand  'Old  Commoner,'  Thaddeus  Stevens,  with  his  hand  and 
his  cane  under  his  arm,  when  he  returned  to  the  House  after  the  final 
conference,  and  shedding  bitter  tears  over  the  result.  'Yes,'  said 
he,  '  we  have  had  to  yield ;  the  Senate  was  stubborn.  We  did  not 
yield  until  we  found  that  the  country  must  he  lost  or  the  banks  be  grat- 
ified, and  we  have  sought  to  save  the  country  in  spite  of  the  cupidity 
of  its  wealthier  citizens."  ^ 

Thus  three  kinds  of  mone}^  were  established :  the  demand-notes, 
the  legal-tender  notes,  and  gold  and  silver,  —  placing  a  premium  on 
the  coin,  over  which  the  government  had  no  control.  The  legal- 
tender  currency  issue  was  too  small,  and  for  some  unaccountable 
reason  Congress  would  not  authorize  the  issue  of  more  currency,  and 
hence  was  forced  to  create  a  fourth  kind  of  money,  in  the  form  of 
bonds  of  the  United  States,  bearing  heavy  interest  payable  in  coin,  — 
although  the  principal  of  these  bonds,  known  as  five-twenties,  was  gen- 
erally understood  to  be  payable  in  legal-tender  currency,  —  and  caused 
them  to  be  sold,  at  a  ruinous  discount,  for  gold,  which  Congress  had 
greatly  enhanced  in  price  by  requiring  all  duties  to  be  paid  to  the 


1  The  Money  Question.     By  Wm.  A.  Berkey,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.     1876. 


186  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

agents  of  the  treasury  in  specie,  thus  directly  depreciating  the  legal- 
tender  notes  by  refusing  to  receive  them  for  duties  payable  to  the 
government. 

The  issue  of  these  interest-bearing  bonds  during  the  war  forced  the 
government  into  the  market  to  sell  its  own  securities  for  its  own  legal- 
tender  notes,  or  for  gold ;  and  to  do  this  it  was  deemed  necessary  to 
employ  bankers  and  brokers,  pay  heavy  commissions,  and  contract 
immense  future  obligations  in  the  way  of  interest,  in  order  that  some 
banking-houses,  with  not  a  millionth  part  of  its  wealth  and  resources, 
might  indorse  its  bonds  and  undertake  their  negotiation.  Thus  this 
wealthy  and  powerful  government,  by  an  unpardonable  financial 
blunder,  placed  its  finances  at  the  mercy  of  foreign  and  domestic 
money- monopolies ;  nay,  sacrificed  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of 
future  generations,  by  unnecessarily  incurring  an  interest  debt  which 
already  demands  a  most  oppressive  rate  of  taxation  and  duties  to 
meet  it. 

But  even  these  miserably  inconsistent  financial  measures  of  issuing 
several  different  kinds  of  treasury-notes,  bonds,  and  national-bank 
notes  demonstrated -in  a  general  way  the  wisdom  of  having  a  national 
money,  controllable  by  the  government.  An  era  of  prosperity  for  the 
United  States  began,  and  continued  from  1863  to  1869-70,  that  made 
us  almost  forget  the  expenses  and  ravages  of  a  gigantic  civil  war. 
Commerce,  agriculture,  and  manufactures  multiplied  in  wonderful 
proportions ;  great  public  improvements  of  all  kinds  increased  rap- 
idly on  every  side ;  and  this  national  prosperity  would  in  all  prob- 
ability have  been  permanent  if  the  acts  of  1869-70  had  not  been 
passed,  and  thus  a  polic}'  been  adopted  by  the  treasury,  subjecting 
the  established  national  currency  to  a  ruinous  conflict  with  the  old 
coin-despotism,  supporting  and  supported  by  the  money-monopolies 
that  now  rule  the  nation  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

.  Indeed,  from  the  ver^'  day  that  our  government  declared  itself  free 
from  the  tyranny  of  the  Old  World  money,  —  gold  and  silver,  —  and 
issued  its  own  money  in  place  thereof,  a  new  business  life  took  pos- 
session of  the  whole  country.  Houses,  manufactories,  and  machine- 
shops  were  erected  for  the  new-developing  business ;  steam  A'essels 
and  railroads  were  built  on  a  scale  never  known  before ;  new  Territo- 
ries populated  and  developed  to  an  unparallelled  extent, — so  that  it 
seemed  almost  as  if,  were  it  not  for  the  sea-coast,  we  might  afford  to 
lose  the  whole  South,  and  still  be  adequately  recompensed  by  the 
new  up-growing  West.     For  full  ten  years  from  the  first  issue  of 


MONEY.  187 

greenbacks  we  enjoyed  an  era  of  financial  prosperity,  without  any 
revulsion  or  business  panic,  —  a  growth  of  actual  prosperity  which  is 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  our  country.  No  decade  of  the  past 
century  of  our  historical  existence  as  a  nation  was  so  free  from 
financial  distress,  so  fruitful  of  general  development  and  individual 
wealth. 

The  true  i)olicy,  however,  and  the  one  suggested  to  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  would  have  been  to 
recommend  to  Congress  the  passage  of  a  law  for  the  creation  of  a 
national  money,  by  the  issue  of  legal-tender  treasury-notes,  receiv- 
able for  all  debts,  demands,  and  duties,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  otlier 
money,  thereby  rendering  gold  and  silver  mere  articles  of  commerce, 
like  copper,  lead,  iron,  and  other  products  for  import  or  export. 

If  this  policy  had  been  approved  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
or  adopted  by  Congress  without  his  recommendation,  the  war  ex- 
penses would  have  been  greatly  diminished,  and  at  the  restora- 
tion of  peace  there  would  have  been  no  national  bonded  war-debt 
and  no  national  taxes ;  and  the  people  would  have  had  a  reliable 
national  money  for  general  circulation,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
money,  and  oetter  suited  for  business,  commercial,  and  governmental 
pui'poses  than  any  other  money  in  the  world. 

Instead  of  adopting  this  economical  and  statesmanlike  policy  to 
meet  the  public  exigency,  many  vacillating,  speculative,  and  unwise 
schemes  were  proposed  by  the  treasury,  adopted  by  Congress,  and 
abandoned  alternately,  until  the  bond-credit  of  the  United  States,  in 
1864,  sank  below  that  of  the  Confederate  States  about  twenty  per 
cent  in  the  London  money  market.  This  was  the  plain  result  of  our 
own  inconsistent,  suicidal  financial  schemes,  as  will  clearly  appear 
from  a  brief  review  of  them. 

The  issue  of  the  demand-notes  of  August,  1861,  was  followed  by 
an  issue  of  common  legal-tender  notes  in  lieu  of  them ;  then  of  coin 
interest- bearing  five -twenty  bonds,  seven -thirty  interest -bearing 
bonds,  treasury  three-year  notes,  three  per  cent  certificates,  more 
five- twenty  bonds  and  gold  certificates,  until  about  $2,000,000,000 
five-twenty  bonds  had  been  issued. 

In  fact,  the  main  purpose  of  the  financial  administration  of  our 
affairs  during  the  whole  progress  of  the  war  seemed  to  be  to  create 
an  enormous  national  debt,  bearing  a  high  rate  of  interest,  and  en- 
tailing upon  the  people  ruinous  taxes  and  tariffs. 

But,  worse  than  all  these  extravao-ant  and  inconsistent  measures: 


188 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


the  government,  finding  that  the  people  needed  move  currency  for 
read^'  interchange,  instead  of  issuing  legal-tender  notes  in  proportion 
as  they  were  needed,  created,  in  1863,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
monopolies  in  the  world,  by  the  National-Bank  Act,  and  transferred 
to  the  money  corporations  to  be  organized  thereunder  the  national 
sovereign  power  of  issuing  United  States  national-bank  notes,  paying 
them,  moreover,  vii'tually  an  annuity  of  six  per  cent  in  coin  to  accept 
the  most  valuable  franchise  in  the  gift  of  the  government. 

Within  five  j'ears  there  had  been  established  sixteen  hundred  and 
twenty  of  these  national  banks,  with  a  circulation  of  $300,000,000, 
secured  by  United  States  five-twenty  bonds  for  $342,475,600,  de- 
posited by  them  in  the  treasury'  to  secure  their  several  circulations, 
issued  upon  such  bonds,  the  redemption  of  which  in  legal-tender 
notes  was  guaranteed  by  the  United  States  ;  that  is,  the  government 
paid  those  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty  banks  an  interest  bonus  of 
six  per  cent  in  coin  a  year  on  $342,475,600  of  United  States  bonds, 
to  accept  the  privilege  of  using  $300,000,000  of  such  currency  so 
Issued  to  them,  and  loaning  the  money  at  the  highest  rates  of  in- 
terest. 

Within  ten  years  more  those  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty  national- 
bank  monopolies  had  increased  to  two  thousand  and  forty-five,  with 
a  circulation  of  $335,134,504.  The  following  table  shows  at  a  glance 
what  an  enormous  power  these  banks  —  all  combined  into  one  mo- 
nopoly by  common  interests  —  wield  over  the  people,  and  even  over 
the  government,  and  what  vast  profits  they  reap  from  the  power  so 
bhndly  and  unjustly  granted  them  by  the  government:  — 


National  Banks  —  Their  Number,  Capital,  Surplus,  and  Dividends. 


1870. 
1S71. 

is;2. 

1873 . 
1874. 
1S75. 
1876. 
1877. 
1878. 
187a . 


1,601 

1,6;):} 

1  ,s:r2 
l,M.-).5 
l,it71 
'2,047 
2,081 
•2,072 
2,047 
2,045 


1425,317,104 
445,999,264 
465,676,023 
488,100,951 
489,938,284 
497,8(14,833 
500,482,271 
486,324,860 
470.231,896 
455,132,656 


$91,630,630 
98,286,591 
105.181,942 
118,1 13,.'^4S 
128,364.039 
134,123,649 
132,251,078 
124,349,2.54 
118,687,134 
115,149,351 


$42,.559,438 
44,330,429 
46,687,115 
49,W9,0y0 
48,4.59,305 
49,068,f;01 
47,375,410 
43,921,085 
36,941,613 
34,942,921 


$55,810,819    10.12 

.54,.5.5S,473     10. 14 

.58,075,430 

65,048.478 

59,580,931 

57,936,224 

43,638,1.52 

;!4,.«;66,990 
•  30,60.-.,o89 

31,551,860 


10.19 
10.31 
9.90 
9.S9 
9.42 
8.93 
7.80 
7.60 


8.35 
8.31 
8.33 
8.30 
7.87 
7.81 
7.45 
7.09 
6.21 
6.07 


10.96 
10.23 
10..36 
10.87 
9.68 
9.23 
6.87 
5.62 
5.14 
5.49 


MO^■EY.  189 

This  ruinous  scheme  of  finance,  invented,  it  is  said,  in  the  treasury, 
to  aid  the  Federal  government,  is  about  equivalent  to  a  loan  of  money 
by  Mr.  Prodigal  to  Mr.  Shylock  for  twenty  years,  on  a  special  agree- 
ment that  the  lender  should  pay  the  borrower  six  per  cent  yearly 
interest  in  coin  for  accepting  the  money  so  loaned,  and  assuming  the 
trouble  of  lending  it,  at  the  highest  rate  of  usury  possible,  for  his 
own  profit. 

But  in  order  to  rivet  these  chains  of  debt  and  interest  more  firmly 
upon  the  necks  of  the  people,  so  that  no  future  Congress  could  remove 
them,  it  was  necessary  for  the  bondholders,  brokering  s[)eculators, 
and  the  national-bank  stockholders  —  in  short,  for  the  gold-ring, 
which  they  together  had  meanwhile  organized  —  to  procure  the 
passage  of  a  law  declaring  the  five-twenty  currencj'  bonds  to  be 
redeemable  only  in  coin  ;  and  to  prevent  the  repeal  of  such  an  unjust 
law,  another  enactment  was  required,  authorizing  the  issue  of  new 
bonds,  with  special  contracts  inserted  therein  binding  the  govern- 
ment to  pay  the  principal  and  interest  in  coin,  whereby,  on  tlie  sale 
of  the  new  bonds  for  gold,  the  proceeds  would  be  used  for  the 
redemption  of  the  five-twenty  currency  bonds  in  coin. 

To  accomplish  this  purpose,  Congress,  on  the  18th  of  March,  1869, 
passed  a  joint  resolution  pledging  the  faith  of  the  nation  to  redeem 
the  five-twenty  bonds  in  gold,  and  on  the  14th  of  July,  1870,  another 
act,  authorizing  the  issue  of  new  gold-bonds,  with  gold  coupons,  to  be 
sold  for  the  redemption  of  the  five-twenty  currency  bonds  at  par. 

About  $2,000,000,000  of  five-twent3'  currency  bonds  were  thus 
changed  into  coin  bonds  by  the  act  of  1869,  the  burden  falling 
with  crushing  force  upon  the  tax-payers  and  producers  of  the  present 
and  future  generations  of  our  own  people.  These  five-twenty  bonds 
had  most  of  them  been  purchased  at  an  average  coin  price  of  about 
fifty  cents  on  the  dollar.  By  this  act  of  Congress  the  national  debt 
and  all  secured  debts  of  individuals,  contracted  for  currency  during 
the  war,  were  in  reality  doubled  for  the  sole  benefit  of  usurers, 
bondholders,  and  monopolists,  and  a  new  obligation  was  created 
for  the  American  people,  which  it  was  impossible  to  fulfil,  as  shown 
by  the  subsequent  bankruptcies.  There  was  not  half  gold  enough 
to  be  had  anywhere  to  pa}^  off  the  five-twenty  bonds.  It  was  a 
physical  impossibility;  and,  by  the  resolution  assuming  to  pay  it 
in  coin,  Congress  virtually  forced  upon  the  nation  a  gigantic  short 


190 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


sale  of  S2, 000, 000,000  in  gold  for  $2,000,000,000  in  five-twenty 
bonds  that  had  already  been  sold  for  currency  prices  and  were  then 
outstanding,  subject  to  be  redeemed  in  legal-tenders. 

It  was  a  bold,  treasonable  cornering  of  the  nation  in  the  interest 
of  the  bondholders;  and,  injurious  as  its  consequences  have  already 
been,  in  producing  universal  financial  distress  and  innumerable  bank- 
ruptcies, and  far  more  threatening  calamities  of  national  insolvency 
and  revolution  that  it  holds  out  for  the  future,  these  calamities  can 
be  averted  only  by  the  repeal  of  the  acts  of  1869-70,  and  the  passage 
of  an  act  prohibiting  the  further  sale  of  new  gold-bonds,  and  requir- 
ing the  redemption  of  all  the  remaining  five-twenty  currency  bonds 
in  legal-tender  notes  to  be  issued  for  that  purpose,  as  was  the  original 
intention  and  understanding. 

That  we  cannot  go  on  and  do  business  under  the  present  system 
must  be  evident  to  any  one  who  will  look  over  the  following  state- 
ment, and  consider  especially  the  figures  for  the  failures  of  the  A-ears 
1872,  1873,  1874,  1875,  1876,  1877,  1878,  and  for  nine  months  of 
1879:  — 

Failures  in  the  United  States  for  Txoenty-tioo  Years. 


1857 
1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 
186-2 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1S69 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 


N'o.    •  Liabilities. 


4.932 
4,2-25 
3,913 
3,676 
6,993: 


l,5ff>' 
•2.780 
2,608 
2,799 
Z,x>\ 
2,915 
4,069 
5,183 
5,.S30 
7,740 
9,092 
8,872' 
10,478, 
5,320 1 


.$291, 

95, 

64, 

79, 

207, 


750,000 
749,000 
394,000 
807.000 
210,000 


783,000 
666,000 
694, (KK) 

(m.ooo 

242.000 
252,000 
056,000 
,499,000 
,2:!9,(t00 
060,(MX) 
,117,000 
660,000 
,383,132 
,054,940 


In  connection  with  this  table  it  will  be  interesting  to  know  the  ex- 


MONEY. 


191 


tent  of  the  failures  in  the  several  States  for  the  full  years  of  1873 
and  1874.     The  following  table  gives  the  numbers  and  amounts :  — 


states  and  Territories. 


Alabama 

Arkansas     

California 

Colorarlo 

Connecticut    .     ...... 

Delaware 

District  of  Columbia  .    .    . 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho^Territory 

Illinofs 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas . 

Kentucky    

Louisiana 

Maine ;    .    . 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska     

Nevada    

New  Hampshire      .... 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

New  York  City 

North  Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon    

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee  

Texas 

Territories 

Utah  Territory 

Vermont 

Virginia  and  West  Virginia 
Washington  Territory  .  . 
Wisconsin 

Total 


1873. 


"•^.^^     lAtnonnt  of 
'^  M      Liabilities. 


52 
17 
70 

'ioi 

31 
13 

10 
67 

*329 

134 

141 

94 

125 

74 

80 

63 

309 

248 

61 

79 

188 


27 
119 
544 
644 

63 
321 

576 

58 
36 
77 
116 
44 

"21 
125 

"si 


$1,337,000 

307,000 

1,500,000 

'  '1,452,666 

663,000 

240.000 

258,000 

2,113,000 

'  "7,V09,666 
2,2»;0,000 
1,917,000 

821,000 
2,287,000 
2,831,000 

752,000 

1,229,000 

11,224,000 

3,917,000 

944.000 

909,0(10 
5,867,000 

311,666 

513,666 
2,482,000 
13,721,000 
92,635,000 

672,000 
11,320,000 

31,445,666 

15,250,000 

1,927,000 

1,036,000 

1,751,000 

868,000 

3ob,6()0 
2,188,000 

'  '1,574,666 


5,183   $228,499,000 


1874. 


48 


151 
27 

18 
14 

118 

'332 

167 

144 

94 

167 

99 

84 

110 

416 

286 

60 

66 

175 


32 
146 
573 
645 

56 
343 

"644 
71 
61 
94 
142 
67 


Amount  of 
Liabilities. 


$963,000 

406,000 

2,571,000 

'  '2',28'6',666 

578,000 

256,000 

293,000 

1,845,000 

7,510,666 
2,397,000 
2,034,0(10 

9ss,noo 

1,879,000 
4,4-2".),000 

i,(i(;3,()90 

l,(i91,0ll() 

10,(iOO,000 

4,477,0(10 

1,029,000 

i,ri.-)5,ooo 

3,061,000 

521,666 

2'6'6',666 

3,854,000 

10,295,000 

32,580,000 

542,000 

8,481,000 

'3'4'.7"7'4',666 
1 ,250.000 
l..i3],000 
L5S5,000 
2,201,000 
969,000 


36  380,000 

114'        1,514,000 


nil        2,575,000 


5,830'  $155,239,000 


It  is  interesting  also  to  compare  the  disasters  of  these  vears  with 
those  of  the  period  which  has  elapsed  since  the  panic  of  1857,  which, 
like  the  panic  of  1861  and  the  one  of  1873,  was  brought  about 
b}'  a  sudden  sweeping  awa}-^  of  paper  money  used  for  ciranlation, 
consequent  upon  attempts  to   establish   an    exclusively  gold-money 


I 

192  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

circulation.  In  each  case  it  turned  out,  that  there  was  virtually  no 
gold  to  be  used  for  mone}^  purposes,  the  quantity  being  so  exceed- 
ingly small.  It  is  also  worthy  of  remark  that  although  the  panic  of 
the  year  1857  was  the  worst  of  any  single  ^'•ear  in  the  list  in  regard 
to  the  number  of  failures  and  amount  of  liabilities,  the  panic  of  1873 
has  been  infinitely  more  disastrous,  in  that  there  has  been  no  recovery 
as  3'et,  though  it  has  now  lasted  over  six  years,  and  that  the  dread 
of  the  non-repeal  of  the  resumption  act  still  perpetuates  its  conse- 
quences. The  panic  of  1857,  on  the  other  hand,  lasted  only  one 
3'^ear,  owing  to  the  reissue  of  paper  money  in  the  very  next  year. 

The  simple  truth,  which  explains  this  extraordinary  growth  of 
bankruptcies,  is,  that  we  have  been  compelled  to  do  business  after 
1869  with  two-thirds  per  cojyita  less  than  densely  populated  France, 
and  one-third  less  than  England  requires.  The  unavoidable  result 
of  this  money  scarcity  was  a  general  stoppage  of  industiy,  at  an 
immense  loss  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  estimated  at  $500,- 
000,000  a  year.  Railroads,  factories,  business  houses  of  ever}^  kind, 
insurance  and  manufacturing  companies,  and  navigation  companies, 
went  into  bankruptcy,  or  were  sold  out  for  a  mere  song,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  gold-ring  frequently  becoming  purchasers  at  merely 
nominal  prices.  A  great  number  of  counties  in  the  Western  States 
became  virtually  insolvent  and  unable  to  pay  the  interest  on  their 
debts,  and  still  remain  so. 

This  scarcity  of  a  circulating  moneji'-medium  I  have  already  alluded 
to  as  the  cause  of  all  the  financial  disasters  that  have  aflflicted  the 
world.  An  abundance  of  currency  is  absolutely  necessary  to  secure 
financial  prosperity.  The  United  States  have,  in  this  respect,  been 
alwa3'^s  somewhat  at  a  disadvantage,  in  comparison  with  other  great 
commercial  countries,  such  as  Austria,  Belgium,  France,  Great 
Britain,  Germany,  the  Netherlands,  Switzerland,  etc.,  as  will  appear 
from  the  following  table,  giving  the  — 


MONEY. 


193 


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1!)4  ■  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 

Wliile  all  this  financial  ruin  was  going  on,  the  gold-ring  put  on 
airs  of  virtue,  with  a  brazenness  absolutely  astonishing.  It  ascribed 
all  the  depression  that  followed  and  preceded  the  crash  of  1873,  — 
though  palpably  the  consequence  of  contraction,  —  as  due  to  the  fact, 
that  there  had  not  been  contraction  enough ;  that  we  were  reaping 
the  fruits  of  previous  overtrading  extravagance,  and  that  we  should 
never  reaUze  the  prosjierity  of  the  years  18(55-6-7,  when  greenbacks 
were  abundant,  unless  contraction,  that  had  worked  our  ruin,  was 
carried  to  its  baneful  end  by  the  retirement  of  the  whole  greenback 
circulation,  amounting  to  $773,428,542,  and  the  resumption  of  a 
purely  specie  basis,  with  its  periodical  financial  earthquakes  and  ruin. 

So  successful  were  the  banks  and  the  Gold  Ring  in  imposing  on 
the  people  of  the  country,  that  Congress  was  finally,  by  some  inex- 
l)licable  means,  persuaded  in  January,  1875,  to  decree  the  resumption 
of  specie  payment  on  the  first  of  January,  1879. 

But  to  still  further  increase  its  profits,  the  gold-ring,  being  sure  of 
having  a  legal  hold  on  the  United  States  government  for  an  amount 
of  gold  money  which  cannot  l)e  obtained  in  the  whole  world,  consum- 
mated its  scheme  of  making  itself  the  absolute  master  of  the  money- 
power  of  the  United  States,  by  presenting  to  Congress  an  act  that 
was  passed  in  January,  1875,  directing  the  repeal  of  the  Legal-Tender 
Act,  and  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  by  the  government  on  the 
first  day  of  January,  1879.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  repeal  of 
the  National-Banking  Act  was  not  provided  for  in  this  law.  The 
United  States  was  to  redeem,  in  coin,  the  legal-tender  greenbacks  and 
the  fractional  currency  ($413,428,542)  outstanding  in  March,  1876, 
but  what  was  to  become  of  the  national-bank  notes  ($360,000,000) 
then  outstanding  was  not  even  suggested. 

In  my  opinion,  the  scope  and  purpose  of  the  act  of  January,  1875, 
was  simply  this :  The  people  of  the  United  States  were  to  give  up 
their  legal-tender  greenbacks,  which  they  had  found  so  convenient 
and  economical  for  a  circulating  money-medium,  and  the  treasury 
was  to  issue  in  their  place  bojids  bearing  interest.  These  bonds  were 
to  be  sold  for  coin  to  cancel  the  legal  tenders,  and  while  this  coin 
would  not  serve  the  people  near  as  well  as  our  greenbacks  have  served 
them,  they  moreover  would  have  to  pay  the  semi-annual  coin  interest 
on  the  four  or  five  hundred  million  dollars  of  bonds,  without  any 
benefit  whatever.  That  this  meant  great  national  financial  distress 
must  be  evident  to  every  impartial  mind. 


MONEY.  195 

But  it  meant  also  something  more,  and  something  still  more  disas- 
trous,    We  can  perpetuate  our  free  institutions,  as  events  have  shown, 
even  when  internal  dissensions  seem  to  render  us    distracted  for  a 
while  ;   but  with  universal  bankruptc}^  staring  us  in  the  face  —  bank- 
ruptcy of  individuals,  communities,  States,  and  even  of  the  Federal 
government  —  we  must  go   under;    most  likely  drift  into   Mexican 
anarchy  and  highway  robbery.     If  any  one  thinks  that  this  is  an  exag- 
geration, let  him  study  carefully  the  monthly  reports  of  bankruptcies 
in  his  locality,  and  reflect  what  number  of  subordinate  failures  and 
financial  suffering  must  follow  every  reported  case.     One  company  or 
firm  declares  itself  insolvent,  or  is  declared  insolvent,  and  a  hundred, 
or  mayhap  a  thousand  persons  are  unable  to  pay  their  rent  bills,  grocery 
bills,  or  butchers'  and  bakers'  bills.     The  oflflcers  of  the  company,  or 
the  meml^ers  of  the  firm,  may  for  a  while  contrive  to  keep  up  living 
in  style,  especially  if  they  have   well  feathered  their  nests  before 
abandoning  them  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  bankrupt  law,  to  hatch 
out  whatever  it  can  from   the  generally  pretty  well  incubated  eggs 
therein ;  but  the  employees  have  not  that  chance.     Their  landlords 
turn  them  out  of  their  rooms  ;  grocers,-  butchers,  and  bakers  refuse 
them  credit;  without  shelter,  clothing,  and  food,  what  are  they  to  do? 
Assuredly,  when  by  continuing  the  foolish,  suicidal  financial  policy 
which  has  ruled  us  ever  since  specie  resumption  was  first  talked  about 
and  quasi  inaugurated,  we  shall  all  liave  become  beggars,  the  next 
and  inevitable  part  of  the  programme  will  be  to  change  us  from  a 
community  of  free  republicans  to  a  community  of  freebooters. 

To  avert  such  a  calamity,  the  only  course  to  pursue,  therefore,  ie 
to  issue  the  absolute  national  legal-tender  money  of  my  system  in 
suflficient  quantity  to  redeem  all  the  outstanding  five-twenty  bonds 
at  par,  and  let  Congress  declare  those  bonds  to  be  redeemable  in  that 
currency ;  those  legal-tender  notes  to  be  declared,  moreover,  the 
only  national  money  receivable  for  property,  debts,  and  duties  in  the 
United  States.  This  would  give  us  a  far  better  money  system  than 
we  have  now,  or  ever  have  had  ;  it  would  restore  trade,  commerce, 
and  all  industries  to  a  sound  and  prosperous  condition  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  it  would  prevent  the  monopolizing  money-corporations  of 
the  country  from  unjustly  taxing  the  people  in  the  way  of  interest 
for  the  use  of  money  that  really  belongs  to  the  government. 

To  the  objection,  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  intrust  Congress 
with  the  power  to  issue  such  a  money, — the  only  real  objection 


196  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

raised,  next  to  the  one  which  I  shall  consider  in  the  chapter  on 
Foi'eign  Exchange,  —  I  reply :  — 

1.  All  possibility  of  an  illegitimate  over-issue  of  money  is  precluded 
by  my  proposed  system  of  annual  statistics,  which  will  show  every 
year  the  amount  of  money  needed  to  carry  on  the  whole  business  of 
the  United  States. 

2.  And  I  ask  in  return,  how  is  the  present  money  of  account 
(which  I  propose  to  supplant  by  my  system  of  absolute  money)  regu- 
lated in  regard  to  the  amount  serving  as  a  medium  of  circulation? 
Certainly  not  by  any  legislation.  Banks  spring  up  as  the  necessities 
of  trade  and  commerce  require  their  assistance,  and  deal  in  checks 
and  bills  of  exchange  as  money  of  account,  to  the  extent  required  by 
the  needs  of  business,  and  unhappily  the  needs  of  fraudulent  specula- 
tion. There  is  no  legal  guard  against  an  over-issue  under  the  pres- 
ent system  of  money  of  account,  and  hence  it  is  rather  hypercritical 
to  ask  such  guards  for  my  system. 

This  is  a  fact  which  generally  escapes  attention,  and  which  yet 
must  be  evident  to  every  observant  mind  the  moment  it  is  pointed 
out.  A  government,  we  hear  it  always  said,  must  not  have  the  power 
to  issue  money,  because  it  is  impossible  to  limit  the  volume  of  the 
issue  definitely,  and  hence  to  prevent  over-issue.  Admitting,  for  the 
sake  of  the  argument,  that  this  were  so,  why  is  the  same  objection 
not  appHed  to  banks  of  discount  and  deposit,  that  exercise  every  day 
the  power  to  increase  the  money  of  account  (checks  and  drafts),, 
which  is  used  for  the  same  purposes  as  bank-notes  ?  Why  should  the 
banks  have  and  exercise  the  power  of  over-issuing  (by  excessive  dis- 
counts), and  why  should  the  same  people,  who  show  no  fear  at  all  of 
the  effects  of  this  over-issue  of  money  of  account  upon  trade  and 
prices,  exhibit  such  excessive  terror  at  an  over-issue  of  national  paper 
currency?  The  al)surdity  of  this  clamor  has  been  well  pointed  out  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Tooke,  in  his  "  Inquiry  into  the  Currency  Principle," 
Chapters  III.  and  V.  The  loans  of  the  United  States  during  the  war 
times  were  nothing  less  than  an  "over-issue"  of  the  workl's  monej^ 
of  account ;  so  was  the  five-milliard  loan  of  the  French  government ; 
and  yet  both  of  these  "  over-issues  "  comlnned  have  neither  disturbed 
prices  nor  thrown  the  financial  world  into  convulsions.  On  the  con- 
trary, both  "over-issues,"  or  increases  of  money,  have  proportion- 
ately increased  the  prosperity  of  the  world.  Nevertheless,  I  have 
shown  that  my  system  can  and  does  furnish  checks,  since  it  works 


MONEY.  197 

•not  as  the  present  banking  system,  on  "  instinct,"  as  it  were,  — that 
is,  on  pure  chance,  — but  on  a  scientific  metliod. 

3.  I  ask,  further :  When  you  have  a  coin  basis,  have  you  any  pro- 
tection against  an  undue  increase  of  the  circulating  medium  ?  None 
in  the  world.  If  a  new  gold-mine  is  discovered,  your  amount  of 
money  is  suddenly  increased  to  that  extent.  Hence  the  alarm  of 
some  foohsh  financiers  when  the  ,vast  gold-mines  of  California  and 
Australia,  and  the  silver  mines  of  Nevada,  Montana,  Utah,  and  New 
Mexico  were  opened.  "There  will  be  an  over-issue  of  money," 
cried  they;  "gold  will  depreciate  probably  even  below  the  value  of 
silver!  "  Nevertheless,  nothing  of  the  kind  occurred,  although 
$2,400,000,000  of  the  precious  metals  have  been  added  to  the  world's 
coin-money  from  these  mines.  Prices  are  substantially  the  same  now 
as  they  were  when  the  California,  Australia;  Nevada,  and  other  mines 
were  first  opened. 

4.  Congress  has  always  had  the  power  to  increase  the  amount  of 
the  circulating  medium  of  commercial  interchange  in  the  United 
States  by  the  issue  of  a  new  loan.  If  we  can  intrust  Congress  with 
that  power,  why  should  we  be  apprehensive  of  empowering  it  to  enact 
laws  authorizing  the  issue  of  treasury-notes  to  replace  the  bonds? 
The  bonds  —  I  cannot  repeat  it  too  often  —  are  in  the  main  just  as 
much  money  as  the  bank-notes,  and  I  object  to  them  chiefly  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  so  ruinously  expensive  on  account  of  the  cou- 
pons attached  to  them.  It  is  far  more  dangeroiis  to  grant  Congress 
the  power  to  issue  an  unlimited  amount  of  bonds,  than  to  authorize  it 
to  issue  more  money  upon  the  report  of  a  board  of  commissioners, 
based  upon  carefully  gathered  statistics  and  well-prepared  tables, 
showing  the  progressive  ratio  for  the  increase  of  the  absolute  money 
required  by  the  extent  of  trade,  bills  of  exchange,  money  of  account, 
commerce,  and  the  annual  products. 

5.  I  may  add,  in  conclusion,  that  a  further  check  against  both 
over-issuing  and  counterfeiting  can  be  found  in  adopting  the  rule  of 
the  Bank  of  England,  to  cancel  its  notes  as  they  are  presented  and 
issue  new  notes  in  their  place.  Of  course,  this  rule  would  have  to  be 
modified  somewhat,  to  suit  the  characteristics  of  an  absolute  money. 


198  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 


CHAPTER    Vn. 

rOKBIGN  EXCHANGES  AND  AN  INTERNATIONAL  CLEARING-HOUSE. 

The  other  objection  alluded  to  as  raised  against  such  irredeemable 
paper  luone}'  is,  that  it  would  check  all  foreign  commerce,  since 
foreign  countries  would  not  recognize  it. 

To  this  objection  I  reply:  First.  That  the  citizens  of  foreign  coun- 
tries do  recognize  our  paper  money.  They  bought  and  buy  our 
bonds,  knowing  that  with  these  bonds  they  could  buy  any  pui'chas- 
able  commodity  in  the  United  States,  and  would  not  have  bought 
them  had  they  not  known  and  believed  this.  The  outrageous  dis- 
count we  paid  them  for  taking  them  was  simply  a  sv/indle  imposed  on 
our  own  people  by  ourselves.  Second.  The  interchange  between  our 
markets  and  those  of  foreign  countries  is  regulated  in  the  main  by 
the  imports  and  exports,  by  exchange  from  other  countries,  etc. 
Silver  is  even  at  this  day  alreadj'  almost  altogether  an  article  of 
merchandise,  and  gold  will  very  soon  be  one  also  if  governments  ex- 
ercise their  power  to  make  paper  money  and  exchange.  With  only 
one  kind  of  monej''  in  the  State,  the  price  of  those  articles  of  mer- 
chandise, gold  and  silver,  will  regulate  itself  just  as  that  of  all  other 
articles  of  merchandise  does.  The  European  capitalist  will,  for  in- 
stance, just  as  soon  hoard  one  thousand  dollars  of  United  States 
paper  money  as  one  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  gold,  when  he  knows 
for  a  certainty  that  it  will  buy  him  the  same  amount  of  wheat,  or 
lands,  or  cotton  ;  and  the  chances  of  a  fall  or  rise  in  the  price  of  gold 
he  will  take  just  as  readily  as  he  takes  the  chances  of  the  rise  or  fall 
in  other  products. 

In  the  course  of  time  it  will,  no  doubt,  be  feasible  to  arrange 
treaties  with  all  civilized  foreign  countries  regulating  the  value  and 
standard  of  money,  and  thereby  to  allay  altogether  this  spectre  of 
foreign  exchange,  under  pretext  of  w-hich  the  people  are  imposed 
upon  in  every  direction  by  money-monopolies.  The  superstitious 
notions  concerning  the  god  of  Mammon,  as  represented  by  gold  and 
silver,  must  be  swept  away,  even  like  all  other  superstitions  handed 
down  to  us  by  preceding  generations. 

To  state  this  feasibility  in  the  concisest  way :  it  is  quite  as  prac- 
ticable to  establish  an  international  clearing-house  as  it  has  been 
found  practicable  to  establish  clearing-houses  in  every  large  city.     In 


MONEY.  199 

this  international  clearing-house  the  paper  moneys  or  drafts  of  each 
separate  State  in  the  world  would  be  sent  for  exchange,  as  such  ex- 
change may  be  wanted ;  and  rules  could  easily  be  arranged  between 
the  several  nations  composing  this  international  clearing-house,  con- 
cerning the  way  in  which  the  balances  should  be  settled  or  adjusted. 
An  international  code  and  judicial  department  for  the  administra- 
tion of  international  justice  would,  moreover,  greatly  aid  the  clearing- 
house in  effecting  these  measures. 

Situated  as  our  country  is,  in  the  most  favorable  geographical 
position,  between  the  two  great  oceans  of  the  world,  the  developed 
civilization  of  Europe  on  the  east  and  the  wealth  of  Asia  on  the 
west;  connected  already  with  the  one  continent  by  several  lines  of 
telegraphic  cable,  and  undoubtedly  soon  to  be  connected  in  like 
manner  with  the  East  Indies,  China,  and  Japan  ;  exhibiting  a  wealth 
many  million  times  in  excess  of  our  outstanding  circulation,  and  a 
productiveness  in  all  articles  of  commerce  which,  under  the  exercise 
of  judicious  economy,  is  amply  sufficient  to  balance  our  imports  by 
our  exports,  and  having  the  capacity  of  establishing  a  commercial 
marine  that  can  control  the  commerce  of  the  two  oceans :  no  other 
nation  is  so  able  and  competent  to  introduce  the  purely  rational 
system  of  money  herein  developed,  and  be  the  first  to  reap  its  incal- 
culable blessings. 

Every  citizen  is  most  intimately  concerned  in  aiding  the  govern- 
ment to  establish  and  perfect  this  monetary  system,  and  thereby  to 
strike  the  shackles  of  the  money-power  from  our  arms,  and  ta 
keep  the  generations  that  shall  succeed  us  free  from  them.  The 
conflicts  between  capital  and  labor  that  harass  us,  the  exorbitant 
rates  of  interest,  the  sudden  changes  of  value  that  plunge  so  many 
from  wealth  into  poverty-,  and  the  spread  of  pauperism,  which  looms. 
up  threatening!}^  for  the  future  :  all  find  their  permanent  remedy  only 
in  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  money  that  shall  be  under  the 
control  of  the  government,  instead  of  self-interested  monopolies, 
that  are  graduall}^  absorbing  the  wealth  and  liberties  of  the  people. 


200  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

POSTAL   SAVINGS-BANKS. 

In  connection  with  this  question  of  foreign  exchange,  I  may  say- 
also,  that  the  government  should  establish  savings-banks  in  the  post- 
oflSces,  the  deposits  therein  being  guaranteed  by  the  United  States, 
and  its  exchanges  or  money-orders  to  be  current,  not  only  all  over 
the  Union,  but  over  all  the  countries  joining  the  postal  union  estab- 
lished by  the  Geneva  postal  congress  before  alluded  to.     It  will  be 
seen  at  once  what  an  effect  such  a  measure  would  have  towards  the 
establishment  of  an  international  exchange  business,  the  main  point 
objected  to  my  system  of  an   absolute  national  money.     With  our 
greenbacks,  men  could  buy  their  postal  drafts  at  any  post-office  here, 
and  this  postal  draft,  or  whatever  it  might  be  called  hereafter,  would 
pass  current  and  be  promptly  paid  throughout  all  the  countries  be- 
longing to  the  postal  union.     These  drafts  would  amount  to  a  very 
large  sum  per  year,  and  the  usual  premium  on  them  would  pay  double 
all  the  expenses  of  the  mail  service  of  the  United  States,  and  furnish 
domestic  as  well  as  foreign  excliange  at  each  of  the  thirty-seven  thou- 
sand five  hundred  post-offices  to  all  who  might  need  it.     No  more 
beneficial  financial  arrangement  could  be  devised  for  a  perfectly  safe 
exchange.     In  Great  Britain  this  system,  though  as  yet  only  local 
and  in  its  infancy,  has  proved  to  be  very  safe  and  successful.     When 
the  government  takes  your  savings  on  deposit,  you  will  be  very  sure 
of  getting  them  back.     The  dishonesty  of  many  of  the  public  officers 
and  bankers  will  not  affect  this  question  of  absolute  security  of  the 
post  office  deposits  and  exchanges;  for  when  the  government  becomes 
bankrupt,  every  individual  member  of  the  nation  is  bankrupted.     The 
whole  plan  rests,  it  is  true,  on  the  basis  of  cooperation ;  but  whereas 
all  other  previously  devised  codperative  associations  are  within,  and 
subject  to  the  regulations  of  a  national  government,  the  cooperation 
proposed  by  me  is  effected  by  that  national  government  itself,  and 
its   success  can  rise  or  fall  with    that  national  government  alone. 
JShould  our  national  existence  ever  be  wiped  out,  of  course  all  its 
cooperative  features  would  also  perish ;  but  can  any  better  reason  be 
advanced  by  which  to  induce  every  member  of  the  cooperative  nation- 
ality to  risk  his  all  for  the  maintenance  of  the  national  existence? 
To  some  extent   this  international   money-exchange    system   has 


MONEY. 


201 


already  been  established  throughout  the  States  belonging  to  the 
postal  union,  which  now  includes  ncarl3'  all  the  States  of  Europe  and 
America,  all  of  Australia,  and  the  greater  part  of  Asia.  That  is,  at 
any  of  the  larger  cities  in  the  States  of  that  union  you  can  buy  a 
postal  order  for  a  limited  amount,  which  may  be  cashed  at  any  other 
money  post-office  in  the  union.  A  postal  order  bought  in  St.  Louis, 
for  instance,  will  be  paid  in  Paris,  in  Melbourne,  in  Vienna,  or  in 
Yeddo,  and  vice  versa.  At  the  end  of  every  year  there  is  a  settle- 
n^ent  made  of  these  money-orders  between  the  several  post-office  de- 
partments of  the  union.  In  other  words,  the  postal  orders  are  then 
*' cleared."  Now,  this  is  precisely  the  idea  put  forward  in  the  first 
edition  of  "  Libert}^  and  Law,"  seven  years  ago. 

As  yet  the  system  is  but  in  its  infancy,  but  what  vast  development 
it  has  already  reached  will  appear  from  the  following :  — 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1878,  the  post-office  depart- 
ment of  the  United  States  issued  postal  orders  in  the  sum  of  $85,- 
000,000.  The  domestic  money  postal-orders  issued  amounted  to 
$81,442,364,  the  number  of  these  orders  being  5,613,117. 

The  international  postal  orders  —  that  branch  of  the  business  hav- 
ing but  just  gone  into  effect  —  amounted,  in  issue,  to  $2,047,696.86, 
•  ud  were  drawn  upon  the  following  countries:  — 


Countries. 

S 

s 

i3,oSr, 

55,346 

43,314 

4,593 

3,949 

$259,382  43 
807,183  32 
783,416  34 

92  280  74 

"   Italj' - 

105,433  53 

Total     .    .    . 

120,788 

$2,047,696  86 

On  tlie  other  hand,  there  were  paid  on  international  postal  orders- 


Countries. 


To  Canada .     .    . 
*'    Great  Britain 
"    Germany  . 
"    Switzerland    . 
"    Italy  .    .    .    . 

Total      . 


"^^ 


^="0 

S 

fei 

^ 

20,134 

$339,184  89 

21,167 

363,203  18 

29,411 

666,812  70 

2,053 

53,795  72 

281 

7,871  42 

$1,430,867  91 


202  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Leaving  the  United  States  in  debt  to  those  countries  at  the  end  of 
that  year  $616,828.95,  to  be  settled  in  the  usual  manner  between, the 
respective  post-office  departments  of  those  countries.  This  certainly 
is  a  very  encouraging  exhibit  for  the  first  year's  trial  of  this  new  sys- 
tem. But  to  perfect  the  scheme,  postal  savings-hanks  should  be 
established  over  all  the  postal  union,  authorized  to  issue,  in  place  of 
the  present  postal  orders,  drafts  or  bills  of  exchange,  which  would 
be  honored  throughout  the  whole  postal  union.  This  would  deal  the 
death-blow  to  that  most  extortionate  of  all  self-created  monopolies, 
the  private  banker's  foreign  exchange  business. 

CONCLUDING   REMAEKS. 

Let  me,  in  conclusion,  summarize  the  main  advantages  of  such  a 
system  of  absolute  money  for  the  United  States,  as  I  have  sketched 
in  the  foregoing,  perhaps  a  little  more  at  length  than  would  be  war- 
ranted by  the  general  character  of  this  work,  were  it  not  for  the 
supreme  importance  of  the  money  question  in  that  period  of  human 
development  upon  which  we  are  now  entering :  — 

1.  It  would  unite  the  people  of  the  United  States  by  ties  even 
stronger  than  those  of  historical  tradition  and  nationality. 

2.  It  would  at  the  same  time  abohsh  a  dangerous  centralization  of 
financial  power  as  it  now  exists  in  the  Federal  Congress,  and  restore 
absolute  freedom  of  banking  to  the  people  of  the  several  States. 

3.  It  would  free  us  from  financial  leading-strings  of  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  thus  make  us  what  now  we  merely  pretend  to  be,  —  an 
altogether  free  and  independent  nation. 

4.  It  would  extinguish  our  national  debt  and  prevent  the  incurrence 
of  any  new  public  debt  in  the  future. 

5.  It  would  relieve  us  from  the  main  burden  of  our  taxation, — 
the  interest  on  our  bonds,  —  and  thus  make  possible  the  abolition  of 
the  internal  revenue  and  tariff  s3-stems,  and  the  introduction  of 
absolute  free-trade. 

6.  It  would  furnish  us  with  a  uniform  and  elastic  legal- tender 
money,  subject  to  no  fluctuation  or  change  of  value,  and  yet  accom- 
modating itself  always  to  the  requirements  of  the  country. 

7.  It  would  relieve  the  present  insufficiency  of  our  money  circula- 
tion, and  then  lower  the  rate  of  interest  and  compel  the  employment 
of  the  money  in  aiding  the  development  of  our  industries. 

8.  It  would  abolish  the  cumbersome,  expensive,  and  unstable  specie 


MONEY.  203 

money,  and  substitute  in  its  place  the  safest,  most  convenient,  and 
economical  money-medium  possible. 

With  all  these  advantages  so  clearl}-  pleading  in  favor  of  the  adop- 
tion of  my  system,  may  I  not  ask  for  it  the  thorough,  impartial 
consideration  of  the  people  of  this  coiuitry,  of  its  bankers,  and  of 
GUY  representatives  in  Congress,  to  whom  the  vast  responsibility  of 
deciding  the  future  financial  fate  of  this  country,  for  weal  or  woe, 
has  been  intrusted?  We  are  rapidly  approaching  the  most  mo- 
mentous crisis  in  the  history  of  our  internal  development.  A  con- 
tinuance of  our  present  uncertain  money-system,  with  its  utter 
instabihty  and  inadequateness  for  the  needs  of  the  country,  is,  how- 
ever, impossible.  A  change  must  take  place.  We  need  a  financial 
constitution,  if  I  may  coin  the  phrase,  as  fixed  and  permanent  as  the 
political  constitution  which  our  ancestors  made  for  us.  We  need  it 
now,  —  at  once  ;  and  could  a  more  fitting  time  for  the  inauguration 
of  our  financial  freedom  be  conceived  than  the  present?  We  have 
reestablished  our  political  nationality  on  a  wider  and  safer  basis 
than  that  upon  which  it  rested  in  the  early  days  of  our  republic;  let 
us  now  also  establish  our  financial  nationality,  and  thus  complete 
the  work  which  was  l)egun  a  hundred  years  ago  by  the  mighty 
men  of  the  American  Revolution,  in  the  spirit  which  aniiuated  them, 
and  in  the  form  which  they  pointed  out  for  us. 


204  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


MOISTEY— APPEll^DIX. 


CHAPTEE    III. 

EELATION  OF  ABSOLUTE  MONEY  TO  COIN. 

[From  ''Absolute  Money,"  a  New  System  of  National  Finance.     By  Britton 
A.  Hill.     St.  Louis.     1875.] 

It  is  my  firm  conviction,  that  if  the  United  States  government  were 
to  create  such  a  paper-money  system,  and  make  it  exclusively  legal- 
tender  in  the  United  States,  gold  would  soon  lose  its  present  fictitious 
value  and  fall  below  par  in  price,  just  as  silver  fell  below  par  in  Ger- 
many, when  the  government  of  the  German  Empire  had  stripped  off 
from  it  its  legal-tender  prerogative. 

If  this  seems  absurd  to  some  of  my  readers,  let  them  look  at  the 
financial  condition  of  China  or  East  India.  Gold  is  not  taken  in 
eitlier  country  as  money  ;  indeed,  six  hundred  millions  of  the  civilized 
population  of  the  globe  refuse  to  accept  gold  as  money.  Merchants, 
who  took  £20,000  in  gold  to  the  Bank  of  Calcutta  in  1864,  when 
money  was  scarce,  could  not  get  a  single  bank-note  or  rupee 
advanced  upon  it.  "The  price  of  gold  sunk  so  low,"  says  the 
Bombay  Times  of  that  year,  "that  it  cotdd  have  been  reshipped  to 
London  at  three  per  cent  x>i'ofit.'"  And  simply  for  the  reason,  that 
gold  was  not  a  legal-tender  in  India. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  gold  would  soon  share  the  same  fate  in 
the  United  States,  if  my  scheme  of  absolute  money  were  adopted. 
For,  with  such  an  actual  national  legal-tender  money,  of  what  use 
would  gold  be  except  in  the  arts,  and,  in  part,  for  foreign  exchange? 
It  is  estimated  that  there  are  about  $300,000,000  of  gold  coin  now 
in  the  United  States,  hoarded  in  stockings,  bank-safes,  and  the 
Federal  treasury.  It  is  true  that  for  awhile  after  the  passage  of  an 
act  creating  absolute  mone}',  coin  might  still  be  hoarded  ;  but  as  the 


MONEY APPENDIX.  205 

govei-nment  would  not  need  to  be  in  any  hurry  to  purchase  it  for  the 
payment  of  its  gold  obligations,  the  hoarders  of  coin  would  soon  tire 
of  hoarding,  and  make  use  of  the  much  handier  and  unflucUiable 
legal-tender  money  of  the  government. 

There  would  be  absolutely  no  use  for  "redemption"  of  legal- 
tender  in  coin,  and  hence  no  demand  for  it.  It  is  true,  that  so  long 
as  the  paper  money  of  this  country  was  issued  by  private  banks 
and  bankers,  and  was  not  a  legal  tender,  there  had  to  be  a  sort  of 
redemption,  since  the  paper  money  itself  neither  had  nor  pretended 
to  have  any  value  of  its  own.  It  was  a  mere  promise  to  pay  a  certain 
quantity  of  gold  or  silver  upon  its  presentation,  — a  negotiable  note, 
in  fact,  which,  like  all  other  negotiable  notes,  rose  and  fell  in  price 
in  the  market  according  to  the  supposed  abiUty  of  the  issuer  of  the 
note  to  redeem  his  promise. 

But  this  absolute  money  of  mine  could  not  so  rise  and  fall ;  it 
being  not  redeemable  in  specie,  or  indeed  in  any  specific  other 
thing,  though  at  the  same  time  "  redeemable  "  in,  or  rather  receivable 
for  and  convertible  into  all  the  commodities  of  the  nation,  and  the 
exclusive  legal  tender  for  all  payments,  salaries,  judgments,  fines, 
and  debts.  Redeemability  in  coin  would  only  cripple  it  within  the 
limits  of  the  coin  to  be  had  ;  but  its  absolute  legal-tender  convert- 
ibility and  receivability  for  all  payments  would  place  it  wholly 
beyond  the  reach  of  panics  and  the  disasters  attendant  upon  the 
fluctuation  of  the  prices  under  a  money-medium  redeemable  in  coin. 

Private  persons  and  private  corporations  are  not  able  to  guaranty 
their  issues  of  money,  so  as  to  make  them  absolute  and  sovereign. 
Only  governments  can  do  this.  Only  a  government  can  issue  a 
money  that,  representing  the  sovereignty  and  wealth  of  a  whole 
nation,  and  known  to  the  law  as  the  only  legal-tender  and  money- 
measure,  can  purchase  every  article  and  property,  or  satisfy  every 
claim  and  judgment  in  the  country. ^     MetalUc  money  would  always 


1  John  C.  Calhoun,  one  of  the  greatest  American  statesmen  since  the 
Kevolutionary  period,  has  stated  these  same  propositions  in  so  clear  and 
emphatic  a  manner,  in  a  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate  on  the  currency 
issue,  that  I  cannot  forbear  quotinc;  from  him.     He  says :  — 

"  It  appears  to  me,  after  bestowing  the  best  reflection  I  can  give  the  subject, 
that  no  convertible  paper  —  that  is,  no  paper  whose  credit  rests  on  tlie  promise 
to  pay — is  suitable  for  a  currency.  It  is  the  form  of  credit  proper  in  private 
transactions,  between  man  and  man,  but  not  for  a  standard  of  value,  to  per- 


206  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

be  vendible,  but  the  nationa,!  paper-monc}'  would  never  be  vendible. 
Every  other  thing  would  be  purchasable,  but  itself  would  never  be 
purchasable. 

An  able  writer  on  this  subject,  Mr.  M.  E.  Davis,  who  still  clings, 
however,  to  the  heres}'  of  haA'ing  two  kinds  of  money, — interest- 
bearing  3.65  bonds  and  legal-tender  notes, — expresses  about  the 
same  idea  in  his  pamphlet  published  in  1874,  as  follows :  — 

"True  mone}'  is  not  wealth,  any  more  than  the  deed  for  a  farm  is 
the  farm  itself ;  and  there  is  no  more  use  in  liaving  our  money  made 
of  gold  than  in  having  our  deeds  drawn  upon  sheets  of  gold.  Another 
common  and  erroneous  idea  is,  that  if  we  have  paper  money  it  must 
have  a  gold  basis.  That  is  not  only  unnecessary,  but  impossible; 
and  the  effort  to  retain  gold  as  money  is  highly  destructive  to  the 
interests  of  industry.  The  material  of  money  should  have,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  no  intrinsic  value.  We  now  have  a  government  currency 
of  about  eight  hundred  millions,  all  paper.  Suppose  we  could  put 
into  circulation  two  kundred  millions  gold  coin,  —  and  this  is  about  the 
maximum  we  are  able  to  circulate,  —  and  suppose  this  would  enable  us 
to  withdraw  an  equal  amount  of  paper,  and  to  keep  temporarily  (and 


form  exchanges  generally,  which  constitutes  the  approximate  function  of 
raonej^  or  currency.  No  one  can  doubt  but  that  the  government  credit  is  better 
than  that  of  any  bank, — more  stable  and  more  safe.  Bank  paper  is  cheap  to 
those  who  make  it,  but  dear,  very  dear  to  those  who  use  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  credit  of  the  government,  while  it  would  greatly  facilitate  its  financial 
operations,  would  cost  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  both  to  it  and  the  people, 
and  would,  of  course,  add  nothing  to  the  cost  of  production,  which  would 
give  every  branch  of  our  industries,  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures, 
as  far  as  its  circulation  might  extend,  great  advantages,  both  at  home  and 
abroad ;  and  /  noio  undertake  to  affirm,  and  icithout  the  least  fear  that  I  can  be 
answered.,  that  a  paper  issued  by  government,  with  the  simple  promise  to  receive 
it  for  all  its  dues,  tcould,  to  the  extent  it  could  circulate,  form  a  perfect  paper 
circulation,  ichich  coiild  not  be  abused  by  the  government ;  that  it  would  be  as 
uniform  in  value  as  the  metals  themselves ;  and  I  shall  be  able  to  prove  that  it 
is  loithin  the  Constitution  and  potoers  of  Congress  to  use  such  a  paper  in  the 
management  of  its  finances,  according  to  the  most  rigid  I'ule  of  construing  the 
Constitution.'''' 

And  Thomas  Jefferson,  one  of  the  most  prominent  founders  of  the  American 
system  of  federative  government,  in  his  letters  to  Mr.  Eppis  (volume  G  of 
his  works),  says:  '■^Treasury  bills  bottomed  on  taxes,  bearing  or  not  bearing 
interest,  as  may  be  found  necessary,  thro-wn  into  circulation,  tcill  take  the 
place  of  so  much  gold  and  silver.  Bank  paper  must  be  suppressed,  and  the 
circulation  restored  to  the  nation,  to  whom  it  belongs." 


MONEY APPENDIX.  207 

it  would  only  be  temporarily)  the  remaining  portion  of  paper  on  a 
par  with  gold,  we  should  still  have  four  hundred  millions  without  a 
specie  basis.  We  should  then  have  '  resumed  ; '  but  as  half  our  cur- 
rency would  have  no  specie  basis,  how  long  should  we  continue 
resumption  ?  With  the  power  of  the  gold-gamblers  on  one  side,  and 
our  immense  foreign  debt  on  the  other,  not  a  month ;  and  if  these 
interests  can  ever  decoy  us  into  resumption  until  we  have  a  gold 
dollar  in  hand  for  every  note  out,  we  shall  have  a  repetition  of 
days  that  will  make  '  Black  Friday  '  seem  like  sunshine." 

And  again :  — 

"Still  many  people  cling  to  the  idea  that  paper  money  must  be 
redeemed  by  gold  money.  We  cannot  see  why  it  should.  Why 
change  paper  money  into  gold  money,  and  then  gold  money  into  the 
things  we  buy?  Why  not  change  the  paper  money  itself  into  these 
things?  Gold  money  is  mainly  good  to  exchange  wealth.  Green- 
backs will  do  the  work  as  well.  The  stamp  of  our  government  gives 
to  our  paper  money  the  power  of  gold  money,  so  far  as  home  trade 
is  concerned." 

The  practical  benefits  which  result  from  having  a  national  currency, 
not  redeemable  in  specie,  was  strikingly  illustrated  at  the  time  of 
the  last  great  panic  of  1873.  If  we  had  then  had  a  specie  basis,  we 
should  undoubtedly  have  witnessed  a  general  rush  of  the  holders 
of  greenbacks  upon  the  banks,  —  a  rush  that  must  of  necessity  have 
produced  the  suspension  of  all  banks  and  bankers,  and  widespread 
ruin,  distress,  and  bankruptcy.  There  would  have  been  a  state  of 
affairs  quite  as  disastrous  as  that  of  the  year  1857,  when  we  had  the 
"gold  basis,"  of  which  so  much  nonsense  is  written  as  constituting 
the  only  safe  and  wise  financial  basis  for  a  money  system.  Did  it 
save  us  then?  On  the  contrary,  in  their  mad  frenzy  to  possess 
coin,  the  golden  idol  of  the  god  Mammon,  which  the  people  had 
been  taught  to  worship  as  the  only  safe  value,  the  holders  of  cur- 
rencj'  "made  runs"  upon  every  bank  in  the  countr}',  and  conse- 
quently broke  them  all  down.  Did  the  "specie  basis"  save  the 
German  Empire  when  the  great  "crash"  of  Berlin  and  Vienna 
occurred,  almost  simultaneous!}^  with  our  own  of  1873?  Far  from  it. 
Suffering,  as  we  undoubtedl}'^  are  still,  from  the  effects  of  our  panic, 
that  suffering  has  been  confined  to  a  limited  sphere,  —  chiefly  to  our 
industi'ial  interests,  —  and  is  alread}^  in  part  forgotten,  although  the 
increase  of  our  annual  products  has  been  so  great,  that  the  volume  of 


208  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

currency  has  become  altogether  too  small  for  the  transaction  of  the 
trade  and  business  of  the  country.  But  in  Germany,  where  the 
"specie  basis"  holds  swa}^  the  suffering  in  trade  is  rather  increas- 
ing in  intensity.  Does  a  "specie  basis"  keep  England  free  from 
monetary  panics  ?  By  no  means.  It  is  an  established  fact,  that  such 
panics  occur  in  England  every  ten  years,  and  every  once  in  a  while  a 
mysterious  and  unaccountable  drain  for  gold  is  going  on  at  the  Bank 
of  England. 

And  speaking  of  the  Bank  of  England,  the  following  historical 
account  of  its  transactions  since  it  first  organization  may  here  find  a 
proper  place :  — 

"The  Bank  of  England  was  originally  chartered  for  ten  years,  in 
1696,  and  the  charter  has  since  been  prolonged,  b}^  various  renewals, 
till  August  1,  1879,  and  from  that  date  subject  to  a  year's  notice. 
The  loans  made  by  the  bank  to  the  government  were  gradually 
increased,  until,  in  1800,  they  amounted  to  £14,686,800.  The  Bank 
of  England  is,  and  always  has  been,  the  government  bank,  trans- 
acting for  it  all  the  banking  business  of  the  nation,  receiving  the  prod- 
uce of  the  taxes,  loans,  etc.,  and  papng  the  interest  of  the  public 
debt,  the  drafts  of  the  treasury  and  other  public  departments,  trans- 
ferring consols,  etc.  For  this  service  the  bank  receives,  exclusive 
of  the  use  of  the  balances  of  the  public  money  in  its  hands,  about 
£95,000  a  year. 

"Down  to  1797  the  bank  always  had  paid  its  notes  on  demand. 
But  in  1796  and  the  early  part  of  1797,  owing  to  rumors  of  a  French 
invasion,  there  was  a  run  made  on  the  bank,  and  it  was  feared  that  a 
suspension  was  inevitable.  In  February,  1797,  Mr.  Pitt,  apprehen- 
sive that  he  might  not  be  able  to  obtain  sufficient  specie  for  foreign 
paj'ments,  in  consequence  of  the  low  state  of  the  l)ank  reserve,  pi'O- 
cured  the  issue  of  an  order  in  council  requiring  the  bank  to  suspend 
specie  pa^'ments.  The  suspension  lasted  till  1819,  and  is  known  to 
writers  on  finance  as  '  the  period  of  the  bank  restriction.'  The 
bank's  notes,  however,  continued  to  circulate,  and  a  committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons  reported,  soon  after  the  suspension,  that  the 
bank  was  not  merely  possessed  of  the  most  ample  funds  to  meet  all 
its  engagements,  but  that  it  had  a  surplus  stock,  after  the  deduction 
o'  all  demands,  of  no  less  than  £15,513.000.  This  report,  and  the 
fact  that  Bank  of  England  notes  became  practicall}'  legal  tender, 
kept  them  in  circulation,  although  by  1800  they  became  depreciated, 


MONEY APPENDIX.  209 

partly  in  consequence  of  their  own  over-issue,  but  far  more  through 
the  over-issue  of  the  puper  of  the  country  banks.  By  1814  the 
notes  of  the  l)anl<;  had  depreciated  25^  per  cent.  Where  only  £5 
notes  had  previously  been  issued,  soon  after  suspending  specie  pay- 
ments the  bank  began  putting  out  £1  notes,  and  the  country  banks 
joined  in  the  race. 

"Tlie  panic  of  1825  subjected  the  bank  to  a  severe  strain.  All 
England  had  been  possessed  with  a  rage  for  speculation,  such  as  a 
decade  later  demoralized  the  people  of  the  United  States.  The  pro- 
vincial bankers  gave  in  to  the  infatuation,  and  made  the  most  sudden 
and  excessive  additions  to  their  advances.  The  currency  was  inflated, 
and  there  resulted  a  drain  for  gold  on  the  Bank  of  England.  In 
that  year  the  directors  allowed  their  stock  of  bullion  to  fall  from 
£10,721,000  to  £1,260,000.  The  result  was  a  tremendous  panic. 
The  country  banks  of  issue  went  down  like  rotten  trees  in  a  tornado  ; 
in  less  than  six  weeks  over  seventy  banks  were  prostrated,  and  a 
vacuum  created  in  the  currency  that  absorbed  nearly  £10,000,000 
of  additional  issues  by  the  Bank  of  England.  Parliament  enacted 
that  thereafter  no  note  for  less  than  £5  should  be  issued.  This  was 
a  blow  directed  at  the  country  bankers,  who  had  been  easily  able  to 
circulate  their  £1  notes.  In  the  commercial  crisis  of  1837-9,  the 
bank  was  forced  to  draw  for  £2,000,000  on  the  Bank  of  France ;  and 
even  after  that  aid,  says  Mr.  Bagehot,  the  directors  permitted  tlieir 
bullion,  which  was  still  the  currency  reserve  as  well  as  the  banking 
reserve,  to  be  reduced  to  £2,400.000.  A  great  alarm  pervaded  so- 
ciety, and  generated  an  eager  controversy,  out  of  which  ultimately 
emerged  the  act  of  1844. 

"This  famous  measure,  familiarly  known  in  the  British  finan- 
cial world  as  'the  act,'  was  devised  by  Sir  Robert  Peel.  This  law 
divided  the  Bank  of  England  into  two  distinct  departments,  —  an  issue 
department  and  a  banking  department.  The  issue  department  issues 
nothing' but  notes,  and  can  only  put  out  £15,000,000  on  government 
securities,  and  for  all  the  rest  of  its  notes  it  must  have  bullion  de- 
posited. The  issue  department  has  no  power  to  increase  the  currency 
in  any  other  manner.  It  holds  the  stipulated  a.uiount  of  securities, 
and  for  all  the  rest  (as  has  been  said)  must  have  bullion  in  its  vaults. 
'This,'  says  Bagehot,  'is  the  cast-iron  system,  the  hard-and-fast  line 
which  opponents  of  the  act  say  ruins  us,  and  which  the  partisans  of 
the  act  say  saves  us.'     The  act  provided  for  a  weekly  statement  of 

14 


210  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  business  and  issues  of  the  bank,  —  a  requirement  which  intelligent 
men  feared  would  tend  to  create  panics  by  revealing  '  bank  secrets.' 
The  bank  department  receives  from  the  issue  department  £15,000,000 
in  currency,  which  amount  is  loaned  or  issued  to  the  government,  on 
which  the  bank  receives  three  per  cent  interest.  The  bank,  however, 
pays  to  the  government  £180,000  annually  for  the  exclusive  privilege 
of  issue  ;  and  the  profit  of  the  bank,  after  deducting  the  expense  of 
management,  is  estimated  at  from  £80,000  to  £100,000  annually. 
The  bullion  and  coin  in  the  vaults  of  the  issue  department  are  not 
included  in  the  reserves,  and  are  not  under  the  control  of  the  bank- 
ing department. 

"Peel's  act,  dividing  the  bank  into  two  distinct  departments,  has 
been  suspended  three  times  in  order  to  allow  the  banking  depart- 
ment to  employ  the  coin  and  bullion  of  the  issue  department.  In 
other  words,  the  act  has  thrice  been  placed  in  abeyance  to  save  the 
credit  of  the  banking  department.  The  redeemability  of  the  notes, 
however,  has  never  been  questioned  for  a  moment  since  the  passage 
of  the  act.  The  suspensions  occurred  in  1847,  1857,  and  1866.  In 
1847  the  reserve  in  the  bank  department  had  fallen  to  £1,994,000,  in 
1857  to  £1,462,000,  and  in  1866  to  £3,000,000. 

"The  Bank  of  England  is  the  custodian  of  the  reserves  of  the 
several  London  banks  and  private  bankers.  These  deposited  reserves 
are,  for  the  most  part,  loaned  out  by  the  bank.  Then,  again,  the 
reserves  of  the  country  banks,  and  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  bankers 
as  well,  are  deposited  with  the  great  English  banks,  which,  in  their 
turn,  keep  their  reserves  at  the  Bank  of  England.  Therefore  the 
reserve  in  the  banking  department  of  the  Bank  of  England  is  the 
banking  reserve  not  only  of  the  Bank  of  England  but  of  all  London, 
and  not  only  only  of  all  London  but  of  all  England,  Ireland,  and 
Scotland.  The  credit  system  of  Great  Britain  depends  upon  the  se- 
curity of  the  Bank  of  England.  It  is  the  apex  of  the  inverted  com- 
mercial pvramid.  Mr.  Bagehot  says  of  the  popular  British  faith  in 
the  soundness  of  the  bank,  that  '  it  is  contrary  to  experience,  and 
despising  reason.'  Undoubtedly  in  all  three  of  the  years  of  the  sus- 
pension of  Peel's  act,  the  bank  could,  had  it  been  called  upon  to  do 
so,  have  ultimately  paid  its  creditors  in  full ;  but  the  creditors  of  a 
bank,  especially  of  a  great  national  bank,  holding  the  reserves  of 
hundi-vds  of  minor  banks,  want  immediate  and  not  postponed  pay- 
ment. 


MONEY APPENDIX.  211 

"The  directors  of  the  Bank  of  Enghmd  are  rich  London  mer- 
chants, whose  stake  in  the  bank  is  trifling  in  comparison  with  the  rest 
of  their  wealth.  They  have  not  been  bred  to  banking,  and  do  not,  in 
general,  give  the  main  power  of  their  minds  to  it.  There  is  no  law 
compelling  tliem  to  maintain  an  adequate  reserve,  and  only  the  pres- 
sure of  public  opinion,  as  voiced  by  the  great  newspapers,  keeps 
them  conscious  of  their  enormous  responsibilities  as  managers  of  a 
powerful  institution,  the  very  pivot  of  Britain's  vast  monetary  ma- 
chinery. The  interest  of  the  individual  shareholders  of  the  bank 
demands,  of  course,  the  largest  possible  dividends,  and  the  more  the 
reserve  is  diminished  for  employment  in  the  loan  market  the  greater 
will  those  dividends  be.  All  around,  the  larger  joint-stock  banks  are 
paying  far  heavier  dividends  than  are  received  by  the  shareholders  of 
the  Bank  of  England.  It  seems  creditable  to  the  sturdy  good  sense 
of  Englishmen  that  the  Bank  of  England  has  maintained  its  prestige 
for  so  many  years." 

And  now  let  Mr.  R.  H.  Patterson,  one  of  the  foremost  financiers 
of  Great  Britain,  state  the  absurdity  and  destructiveness  of  keeping 
the  financial  prosperity  of  that  immensely  wealthy  country  dependent 
upon  the  presence  in,  or  absence  of  a  few  millions  of  gold  from  the 
Bank  of  England,  and  show  how  all  the  money  panics  that  have 
visited  Great  Britain  are  traceable  solely  to  this  cause.  After  show- 
ing how  the  withdrawal  of  gold  from  the  Bank  of  England  is  imme- 
diately followed  by  raising  the  rate  of  interest  and  curtailing  dis- 
counts, and  how  the  "golden  base  then  begins  to  oscillate,"  until 
"the  greater  oscillations  are  felt  like  the  shocks  of  an  earthquake," 
aad  terror  and  disaster  are  spread  over  the  whole  country,  Mr.  Pat- 
terson proceeds : — 

"  Is  there  not  something  wrong  here?  Ought  the  presence  or  ab- 
sence of  a  few  milUons  of  gold  to  make  the  vast  difference  between 
national  prosperity  on  the  one  hand,  and  national  disaster  and  wide- 
spread suffering  on  the  other?  How  will  posterity  speak  of  us,  when 
it  sees  that  we  made  the  huge  fabric  of  our  national  industry  stand 
like  an  inverted  pyramid,  resting  on  a  narrow  apex  formed  of  a 
chamberful  of  yellow  dross?  Will  they  not  laugh  at  our  folly,  — •  our 
barbarism?  When  the  usual  supply  of  gold  is  temporarily  dimin- 
ished, why  should  our  usual  credit-system  be  restricted  in  proportion, 
or  totally  suspended?  Of  what  use  is  credit  but  to  take  the  place  of 
payments  in  coin?     Was  it  not  for  this  purpose,  and  for  this  alone, 


212  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

that  credit  and  paper-money  were  adopted  ?  Why,  then,  not  make  use 
of  our  credit  system  as  a  means  of  compensating  the  temporary  ab- 
sence of  gold?  Why  not  tide  over  the  difficulty,  instead  of  aggra- 
vating it,  and  so  avoid  the  tremendous  sufferings  which  are  ever 
recurrent  under  our  present  system  of  monetary  legislation."  ^ 

With  still  greater  emphasis  and  outspoken  candor,  he  says,  at  page 
455:  — 

"Paper  money  during  the  last  century  served  the  purpose  of  sup- 
plementing the  inadequate  supply  of  gold  money  in  ordinary  times ; 
what  it  must  be  made  to  do  now  is,  to  supplement  that  deficit  also  in 
extraordinary  times, — or  rather  in  times  which,  though  once  extra- 
ordinaiy,  have  now  become  common,  or  at  least  of  steady  recurrence. 
It  was  only  in  times  of  war  that  our  fathers,  the  men  of  the  past 
generation,  found  their  currency  system  inadequate ;  and  at  such 
times  they  boldly  altered  it,  as  they  did  not  choose  to  be  strangled 
for  the  sake  of  a  theory.  But  commerce  has  so  greatly  extended  in 
our  day,  and  so  many  nations  now  eagerly  engage  in  it,  that  a  drain  of 
gold  money,  which  formerly  used  only  to  occur  in  times  of  war,  has- 
become  a  steadily  recurrent  feature  of  our  commercial  history  even  in 
times  of  peace.  Every  ten  years  such  drains  (money  crises)  are 
becoming  more  certain  in  their  occurrence,  and  more  terribly  severe 
in  their  consequences.  They  have  become  oi-dinary  occurrences, 
and  must  be  provided  for  in  our  ordinary  legislation.  *  *  * 
There  are  various  wa3^s  in  which  this  may  be  done,  and  it  is  of  com- 
paratively little  moment  which  of  these  be  adopted.  But  let  it  be 
done." 

I  am  well  aware,  however,  that  these  periodical  panics  that  shake 
the  financial  world  are  generall}^  attributed  to  other  causes  than  that 
I  have  assigned,  and  than  those  which  Mr,  Patterson  points  out  so 
lucidly. 

There  is,  for  instance,  an  old  and  current  theory  of  finance,  that 
so-called  •"  over -issues"  of  bank-notes,  being  the  chief  cause  of 
alleged  "■overtrading,"  and  hence  of  the  periodical  drains  for  gold 
upon  banks  having  a  "  specie  basis,"  are  the  real  causes  of  mone- 
tary panics  ;  but  the  remedy  prescribed  —  to  contract  the  biink  issues 
of  paper  money  whenever  any  drain  is  made  for  coin  —  always  aggra- 
vates the  disorder. 


1  Ecoaomy  of  Capital,  p.  169. 


MONEY APPENDIX.  213 

The  only  test  applied  by  those  theorists  of  the  specie-basis  school 
has  always  been:  Is  there  a  drain  of  gold  upon  the  banks?  If  so, 
it  was  held  to  be  conclusive  proof  of  over-issues  and  of  overtrad- 
ing ;  to  stop  which  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  punish  over-issuing 
and  overtrading  by  raising  the  rate  of  interest,  contracting  bank 
discounts,  and  rapidly  diminishing  the  volume  of  circulating  bank- 
notes. 

This  whole  theory  is  simply  a  fraud,  —  a  scheme  invented  by 
inoney-kings  to  harass  trade  and  speculate  upon  the  ruin  of  traders  and 
manufacturers.  The  scheme  is  founded  upon  the  idea  that  coin  is 
the  only  possible  base  for  a  paper-money  circulation,  and  that  re- 
demption in  coin  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  validit}'  and  existence 
of  paper  mone3^  Logically  following  their  premises,  those  theorists 
ai'gued  further,  that  their  specie-basis  scheme  was  only  to  be  carried 
out  by  regulating  the  amount  of  bank-note  issues  by  the  amount  of 
coin  in  the  vaults  of  the  bank.  This  was  supposed  to  be  a  shrewd 
contrivance  to  protect  the  gold  in  the  bank  vaults  from  being  with- 
drawn ;  but,  oddly  enough,  the  carrying  out  of  this  policy  inevitably 
led  to  still  more  extensive  runs  upon  the  banks  by  bill-holders  and 
depositors,  since  money  became  in  still  greater  demand  as  the  banks 
contracted  their  issues,  and  revulsions  and  suspensions  followed  as 
the  natural  result. 

Ever  since  the  adoption  of  paper  money,  by  far  the  greater  majority 
of  the  banks  and  bankers  in  all  parts  of  the  world  have  advocated  and 
supported  this  false  theory  of  finance,  in  order  to  perpetuate  their 
power  under  the  coin-despotism.  Nearly  all  the  monetary  revulsions 
have  been  falsely  charged  to  over-issues,  overtrading,  and  over- 
importations,  while  the  true  cause  of  tliese  monetary  panics  was  to 
be  found  only  in  that  false  theory  of  finance  which  directly  tended  to 
produce  them,  and  has  in  eveiy  case  of  its  application  brought  a  dearth 
of  money  upon  traders  and  manufacturers. 

It  never  occurred  to  the  directors  of  banks  that  a  run  for  gold 
could  be  stopped  by  enlarging  the  money  issues  of  the  banks.  Even 
the  British  Parliament,  in  1844,  committed  the  gross  blunder  of  en- 
acting a  statute  that  required  the  Bank  of  England  to  contract  its 
bank-note  circulation  whenever  a  drain  for  gold  commenced  upon  it. 
This  was  a  solemn  parliamentary  recognition  of  that  false  theory  of 
finance,  and  it  brought  on  and  a2;gravated  the  panics  of  1847  and 
1857.     The  destructive  force  and  terrible  consequences  of  the  panic 


214  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

of  1857  compelled  Parliament  to  repeal  the  obnoxious  act  of  1844, 
so  as  to  permit  the  Bank  of  England  to  issue  bank-notes  to  prevent 
the  run  upon  the  bank  for  coin  ;  and  the  repeal  had  the  desired 
effect. 

It  had  been  believed  as  an  article  of  financial  faith  that  no  drain  of 
gold  would  commence  unless  there  had  been  an  over-issue  of  bank 
currency,  followed  by  overtrading,  and  a  consequent  depreciation  of 
the  value  of  the  bank-currency  issues.  Acting  upon  this  naive  theory, 
the  financiers  of  those  daj's  had  but  one  common  aim:  to  accumulate 
gold  in  the  bank  vaults  and  prevent  the  bill-holders  and  depositors 
from  drawing  it  out.  It  was  supposed  that  gold  was  the  grand  centre 
around  which  all  financial  operations  —  ti-ade,  commerce,  and  manu- 
factures—  revolved,  and  that  without  it  financial  chaos  and  ruin  must 
set  in.  Hence  all  the  bank  acts  and  other  schemes  to  protect  gold  in 
the  bank  vaults  from  removal,  as  the  visible  metallic  centre  of  the 
world's  finances.  The  innocent  coin-worshippers  never  dreamed  that 
any  flaw  could  exist  in  their  theory.  They  knew  that  gold  was  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  all  financial  operations,  because  they  had 
received  it  as  a  sacred  tradition  from  their  ancestors.  Holding, 
therefore,  that  gold  must  be  kept  in  the  vaults  of  the  banks  of  issue, 
so  as  to  support  the  issues  and  keep  trade  healthy  and  active,  the 
general  policy  of  all  banks  organized  on  a  specie  basis  has  been  to 
contract  the  currency  issue  whenever,  for  any  cause,  a  run  was  made 
upon  the  banks  for  gold. 

But  this  contraction  of  the  bank  issues,  far  from  having  the  sup- 
posed effect,  as  I  have  already  stated,  has  in  all  cases  only  aggra- 
vated the  run  upon  the  banks  for  gold,  and  forced  on  a  suspension 
of  specie  payments.  Why  have  the  financiers  of  the  world  been 
struggling  witli  this  problem  for  a  centur3^  without  solving  it? 

The  obvious  reason  why  panics  occur  in  the  monetary  world  is 
because  the  circulating  medium  becomes  too  small  to  carry  on  the 
trade  of  the  world,  which  is  rapidly  increasing  far  beyond  the  rate  of 
increase  in  money,  and  hence  periodically  causes  a  scarcity  of  money. 
When  a  scarcity  of  money  begins  to  be  manifest,  the  manufacturers 
and  tradesmen  immediately  feel  the  pressing  need  of  it,  and  seek  to 
supply  it  for  their  trade  from  every  money-channel  open  to  them,  and 
this  necessity  expands  in  every  direction,  until  multitudes  of  people 
are  simultaneously  struggling  in  all  directions  to  obtain  money  for 
immediate  use.      Everything,   then,  tends  to  increase  the  pressing 


MONEY APPENDIX.  215 

demand  for  money,  while  its  volume  is  rapidly  contracting.  The 
people,  driven  by  their  great  necessities,  arising  from  this  money 
dearth,  go  to  the  banks  for  relief.  But  the  banks,  being  already  well 
advised  that  money  is  scarce,  — very  scarce,  —  refuse  to  discount  bills 
and  issue  their  paper  money.  Then  the  pressure  becomes  greater 
than  ever.  And  the  banks  now  refuse  even  to  renew  the  notes  of 
their  customers,  hoping  thus  to  draw  in  their  circulation  and  save 
their  gold.  Then  the  people,  in  their  desperation,  start  runs  for 
gold  upon  the  banks,  and  the  result  is  general  suspension,  ruin,  and 
bankruptcy. 

Indeed,  as  the  trade  and  business  of  the  world  increases,  the  nar- 
rowness of  the  gold  basis  becomes  steadily  narrower,  the  scarcity  of 
coin  becomes  greater,  and  the  revulsions  called  "monetary  earth- 
quakes" are  more  terrible.  For,  as  the  coin  basis  becomes  more 
limited,  in  proportion  to  the  gigantic  advance  of  trade  and  manufac- 
tures, the  money  of  account  and  bills  of  exchange  must  be  enlarged 
to  meet  the  demand.  But,  if  the  bank  issues  and  credits  are  with- 
drawn, the  immense  volume  of  money  of  account  and  bills,  that  never 
have  any  specie  basis,  becomes  wholly  unmanageable,  and  trade  is 
strangled  for  the  want  of  any  kind  of  money  wherewith  to  carry  on 
its  operations.  Although  it  is  well  known,  that  there  is  much  less 
than  one  per  cent  of  coin-money  engaged  in  carrying  on  trade,  and 
that,  in  fact,  not  more  than  two  per  cent  of  coin  exists  in  the  who'e 
civilized  world  to  represent  bank  issues,  bills,  and  money  of  account,, 
yet  the  majority  of  financiers  pretend  to  believe,  and  perhaps  do 
believe,  that  the  trade,  commerce,  business,  and  manufactures  of 
the  world  may  be  carried  on  upon  a  coin  basis,  which  is  simply  im- 
possible. 

It  seems  to  me,  that  this  utter  insufficiency  of  a  pretended  gold- 
basis,  and  the  ruinous  effects  to  which  it  gives  rise  periodically,  have 
been  now  so  clearly  illustrated,  both  by  theory  and  the  experience  of 
centuries,  that  no  one,  who  is  not  wilfully  blind,  can  refuse  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  prosperity  of  mankind  imperatively  demands  the 
abolition  of  specie  as  a  basis  for  our  money  issues.  The  only  safe 
money  system  is  a  national  legal-tender  currency,  not  based  upon 
metallic  coins,  but  upon  all  the  manufactures,  trade,  and  commodi- 
ties of  the  nation  which  issues  it,  supported  b}^  all  that  nation's 
sovereignty,  wealth,  and  power. 


216  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 


CHAPTEE    V. 

A   SPECIE.  BASIS  NECESSARILY   A   DELUSION. 

From  all  the  foregoing,  it  is  evident  that  the  pretence  of  a  specie 
basis  for  any  kind  of  money  of  account  is  a  mere  fraud.  ^  If  such 
a  basis  were  real,  every  bank  of  issue  must  have  one  million  dollars 
of  coin  in  its  vaults  for  every  million  of  its  circulation.  But  this  it 
cannot  keep,  or  where  would  be  the  profit  in  issuing  paper  money  to 
represent  tlie  coin  ?  Nay,  the  banks  themselves  confess  that,  at  the 
very  utmost,  they  keep  only  one-third  of  the  amount  of  their  circu- 
lation on  hand  in  specie.  Their  "  promise  to  pay"  is,  therefore,  an 
acknowledged  lie.  But  why  then  keep  it  up,  especially  as  the  only 
good  which  it  does  is  to  keep  the  money  market  in  constant  agitation, 
and  make  uncertain  all  business  transactions? 

It  might  be  further  suggested,  in  this  connection,  that  there  is 
another  reason  why  gold  and  silver  are  unfit  for  the  purposes  of 
money.  Not  only  are  they  merchandise,  but  a  merchandise  of  great 
value,  although  subject  to  a  great  deterioration  of  that  value  through 
its  mere  use ;  the  loss  by  wear  on  gold  coin  circulating  as  money 


1  Mr.  R.  H.  Patterson,  in  his  work,  <'The  Economy  of  Capital"  (1S65), 
estimates  the  amount  of  gold  held  by  the  banks  in  Great  Britain  at  £20,000,000, 
of  which  the  Bank  of  England  holds  £14,500,000,  the  Irish  banks  £2,000,000, 
and  the  Scottish  banks  £2,500,000.  The  deposits  of  those  banks  he  estimates 
at  £400,000,000.  Hence  the  banks  of  Great  Britain  have  only  five  imr  cent  of 
their  deposits  on  hand  in  gold. 

I  may  add,  further,  what  will  seem  a  paradox  to  the  coin-worshippers,  that 
the  wealthier  a  country  gets,  the  less  it  cares  about  the  possession  of  gold 
and  silver.  During  the  five  years  ending  1859-64,  England  received,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Patterson,  £140,000,000  of  gold.  Of  this  amount  it  exported 
£138,000,000,  retaining,  therefore,  only  £2,000,000  for  home  use.  California 
and  Australia  have  grown  rapidly  rich,  — by  what?  Keeping  their  thousands 
of  millions  of  dollars  of  gold  at  home?  On  the  contrary,  by  shipping  them 
off.  Only  the  Eastern  and  barbarous  nations,  who  make  no  progress  in 
wealth  and  prosperity,  hoard  and  accumulate  specie;  the  prosperous  nations 
of  the  world  get  rid  of  it. 

The  gold  and  silver  mines  of  the  United  States  have  produced  since  1848-9 
the  sum  of  $1,040,000,000  of  gold  and  silver,  and  yet  Mr.  Secretary  Bris- 
tow,  in  his  well-arranged  report  on  the  finances,  of  October,  1874  (p.  21), 
admits  that  we  have  only  $160,000,000  of  coin  in  the  country.  The  balance, 
^1,480,000,000,  has  been  exported  to  foreign  markets. 


MONEY APPENDIX.  217 

being  a1)out  three  per  cent  per  annum.  A  government  coin  of  twenty 
dollars  will,  therefore,  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  years,  be  no  longer 
intrinsically  wortli  twenty  dollars,  but  perhaps  only  eighteen  or  fifteen 
dollars ;  and  as  the  proposition  is,  that  it  must  weigh  twenty  dollars' 
worth  of  gold  in  order  to  be  a  legal  tender  for  that  amount,  it  has 
virtually  ceased  to  be  a  legal  tender  by  having  ceased  to  be  of  full 
weight.  And,  to  tell  the  truth,  the  people  do  not  really  care  to  have 
gold  money,  except  when  in  cases  of  panics  the  specie  spectre  terri- 
fies them  and  renders  them  insane  for  the  moment.  Were  there,  in- 
deed, no  other  reason  not  to  use  gold  as  money,  its  mere  weight  and 
continual  loss  by  use  would  make  it  objectionable.  The  moving  of 
any  considerable  sum  from  one  place  to  another  would  always  neces- 
sitate a  dray  or  wagon ;  and  who  would  keep  a  large  sum  of  coin  in 
his  own  house?  Gold  as  a  money  medium,  in  short,  has  long  since 
been  dead  ;  it  only  requires  now  an  official  burial  and  certificate  of 
death. 

To  show  how  thoroughly  this  general  insufficiency  of  a  specie  basis 
is  understood  by  some  of  the  ablest  writers  on  the  subject  of  finance, 
I  quote  from  several  of  them.  Mr.  Charles  Sears,  a  prominent  polit- 
ical economist,  says,  in  speaking  of  the  inadequacy  of  a  gold  and 
silver  money :  — 

"  Independently  of  circumstances,  and  on  its  merits,  the  specie- 
basis  hypothesis  is  the  most  disorganizing  element  that  ever  obtained 
place  in  society.  *  *  *  Qn  this  hypothesis  our  monetary,  indus- 
trial, and  commercial  systems  constitute  a  huge  pyramid,  or  cone, 
standing  on  its  apex.  Forty  billions  of  property  resting  upon  six 
billions  of  current  production,  which  rests  for  its  value  upon,  say,« 
seven  hundred  millions  of  currency,  which  in  turn,  for  its  value  rests 
upon  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  specie,  which,  so  far  as  our 
possession  of  it  is  concerned,  depends  upon  the  interest  and  good- 
will of  our  rivalsjn  industr}-  and  haters  of  our  political  system. 
******* 

"  Of  course,  on  this  system  all  people,  in  all  times,  have  been  insol- 
vent. Production  and  trade  have  been  carried  on  upon  sufferance. 
So  long  as  confidence  continued  unimpaired,  the  movements  of  prop- 
erty were  kept  up ;  but  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  of  local  trade,  and 
of  the  stock  and  money  speculators,  and  the  natural  sj'stem  itself 
requiring  periodical  settlement,  demonstrate  the  general  insolvency. 
Within  the  last  fifty  years,  say,  a  money  crisis  has  come  quite  regu- 


218  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

larly  eveiy  ten  years.  Something  —  any  one  of  a  dozen  causes,  few 
know  what  —  sets  gold  flowing  out.  Fifty  millions  withdrawn  in  a 
short  time  from  their  usual  phices  of  deposit  is  quite  sufficient  to 
make  the  wiiole  volume  of  coin  disappear  from  ordinary  circulation 
as  completely  as  if  it  had  never  existed.  The  metallic  basis  is  gone,  — 
slipped  out ;  the  pivot  of  the  system  is  dislocated  ;  somebody  wanted 
it,  and  took  it ;  and  the  pyramid  tumbles  down,  burying  in  its  ruins 
three-fourths  of  a  business  generation." 

And  Mr.  Col  well  says :  — 

"The  remedy  for  these  evils" — ^.e.,  the  insecurity  of  bank- 
notes —  "  which  has  been  most  relied  on,  is  that  of  placing  the  banks 
under  stringent  oliligations  to  pay  their  currency  on  demand  in  specie. 
This  would  be  a  complete  remedy,  if  compliance  were  possible  ;  but 
that  is  not  the  case,  —  far  from  it.  It  involves  a  stock  of  the  precious 
metals  in  the  country  equal  to  the  deposits  and  circulation  of  the 
banks,  and  applicable  to  this  purpose  by  remaining  in  the  banks,  as  a 
security  for  their  issues.  Security,  absolute  security,  should  be  re- 
quired of  the  banks  ;  but  it  is  surely  an  error  to  assume  that  the 
security  must  be  gold  or  silver."  ^ 

Mr.  Patterson,  in  speakiug  of  the  theory  that  the  amount  of  cur- 
rency issued  by  a  bank  should  always  var}'  in  amount  as  gold  varies, 
illustrates  the  aljsurdity  of  that  theor}^  by  the  following  brief  state- 
ment, which  I  heartilv  recommend  to  the  study  of  those  of  our  Amer- 
ican financiers  who  have  expressed  a  similar  notion :  — 

"For  many  years  during  the  great  war  with  Napoleon,  especially 
from  1808  to  1815,  there  was  hardly  a  sovereign  left  in  the  country. 
*  *  *  At  such  a  time  —  and  it  may  occur  again  —  the  supporters 
of  the  '  variation  '  theory  would  have  left  nothing  to  varj'.  The  gold 
being  0,  the  paper  currenc}-  should  also  be  0 !  To  hold  such  a  doc- 
trine is  to  bid  defiance  to  common  sense."  ^ 

On  page  282  of  the  same  work  he  says,  on  the  saoae  subject:  — 

"  This  theory  of  variation  is  briefly  this:  If  much  gold  happens  to 
be  brought  into  the  country,  the  note  circulation  is  likely  to  be  in- 
creased to  a  corresponding  extent ;  if  gold  is  temporaril3-  withdrawn 
from  us,  the  note  circulation  also  is  proportionately  diminished.  If, 
owing  to  a  temporary  cause,  all  the  gold  available  for  monetary  pur- 


'  Ways  and  Means  of  Payment,  pp.  11,  12. 
2  The  Economy  of  Capital,  p.  200. 


MONEY APPENDIX.  219 

poses  were  sent  abroad,  all  our  paper  money  would  likewise  disnp- 
pear,  and  the  country  be  left  without  money  of  any  kind.  A  more 
absurd  theory  was  never  propounded.  If  one  kind  of  money  fails 
us,  we  are  upon  no  account  to  use  any  other.  If  metallic  money 
fails  us,  we  are  upon  no  account  to  use  any  other.  This  we  are  told 
to  regtird  as  a  masterpiece  of  economical  science ;  this  is  the  great 
discovery  which  our  'advances  in  civilization  have  revealed  to  us. 
*  *  *  The  gospel  of  monetary  science  now  is,  that  when  a  coun- 
try does  not  want  paper  money,  it  ouglit  to  have  a  great  supplv  of  it ; 
and  when  it  does  require  paper  money,  it  shall  have  none.  When  a 
country  has  enough  of  specie,  it  ouglit  to  double  its  currency  by  issu- 
ing an  equal  amount  of  bank-notes  ;  and  when  there  is  no  specie, 
there  should  likewise  be  no  notes.  Is  it  necessary  to  discuss  .such 
a  theory?  In  order  to  be  refuted,  it  onlj.^  requires  to  be  stated;  in 
order  to  be  rejected,  it  only  needs  to  be  understood.  It  is  a  theoret- 
ical monstrosit}^  which  common  sense  revolts  against,  —  a  burlesque 
of  reason,  which  even  the  present  generation  will  love  to  laugh  at." 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   TKUE   BASIS    OF   ABSOLUTE   MONEY. 

So  much  has  been  written,  ^i7-o  and  con,  on  these  two  subjects  of 
a  specie  basis  and  a  bond  basis,  that  I  will  condense  my  views  on  it 
into  two  distinct  propositions :  — 

I.  That  the  pretence  of  redemption  in  gold  and  silver  —  whether 
asserted  by  a  government,  or  by  a  municipal  or  private  corporation  — 
is  of  necessity  a  delusion  and  an  absurdity. 

II.  That  the  holder  of  an  interest-bearing  Ijond  —  whether  issued 
by  a  government,  or  by  any  municipal  or  private  corporation  —  is  not 
a  whit  more  "secured"  than  the  holder  of  a  non-interest-bearing 
legal- tender  note  of  the  same  government  or  corporation. 

Now  I  propose  that  both  of  these  bases,  specie  and  bonds,  shall 
be  abolished  altogether,  by  making  the  national  treasury  of  the  nation 
the  general  bank  of  issue,  and  causing  its  exchange  or  mone}^  to  be 
issued  upon  the  only  safe  and  sufficient  "basis"  conceivable:  first 
for  the  payment  of  the  national  debt,  and  subsequently  upon  their 


220  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

own  total  trade,  annual  products,  power,  wealth,  and  sovereignty. 
The  people  will  support  the  money  that- represents  their  own  debts, 
and  the  power  and  wealth  of  their  own  country.  Their  money  will 
not  be  "a  promise  to  pay,"  but  it  "will  be  the  medium,  and  the 
only  medium,  wherewith  to  interchange  all  their  commodities  and 
transact  all  their  business. 

This  absolute  moue}^  therefore,  in  the  nation  that  issues  it,  will  be 
redccnmble  not  only  in  specie,  — as  ordinary  bank-notes  are,  or  rather 
pretend  to  be,  since  they  never  can  be  so  fully  redeemed,  — but  will 
be  redeemable,  or  rather  convertible  into  all  the  commodities  of  that 
nation,  —  into  all  its  products,  including  gold  and  silver.  No  panics, 
no  revulsions  in  trade  can,  therefore,  affect  it ;  indeed,  it  will  prevent 
all  such  panics  and  revulsions.  The  present  annual  pi-oductions  of 
the  country  amount  in  value  to  moi'e  than  $15,000,000,000,  of  which 
$76,000,000  are  in  gold  and  silver.  All  these  fifteen  thousand  millions 
of  products  would  be,  as  it  were,  a  security  for  that  national  money, 
since  that  money  would  always  be  a  legal  tender,  and  the  only  legal 
tender  in  the  country,  for  the  purchase  of  them ;  and  it  must  be 
further  remembered,  that  every  year  swells  the  amount  of  our  annual 
products  in  enormous  proportions,  and  increases  the  security  of  this 
absolute  money  in  a  corresponding  ratio.  This  is  another  reason 
why  the  gold  basis  is  utterly  unsuited  for  the  transaction  of  modern 
trade  and  business.  Not  more  tlian  $350,000,000  of  gold  and  silver 
money  now  exists  in  the  United  States,  as  a  basis  for  our  interstate 
business,  and  for  our  foreign  exchanges  in  the  yearlj^  interchange  of 
our  products  and  commodities.  This  amount  of  gold  and  silver 
money  remains  comparatively  stationary,  and  hence  is  evidently  alto- 
gether too  narrow  a  basis  to  meet  the  requirements  of  our  interstate 
commerce,  and  for  the  constant  and  rapid  increase  of  our  business 
transactions.  Hence,  I  propose  to  substitute  in  its  place  a  redemp- 
tion or  conversion  of  the  absolute  money  so  large  that  it  can  never 
fail.  It  is  in  our  $15,000,000,000  of  annual  products,  and  our  foreign 
and  interstate  trade  therein,  and  in  all  tlie  other  revenues  and  wealth 
of  the  people  and  the  government,  its  public  lands  and  its  taxation, 
that  we  find  the  only  basis  lai-ge  enough  to  support  the  amount  of 
money  needed  by  our  country. 

These  are  the  factors  that  will  support  and  redeem,  by  perpetual 
conversion,  the  absolute  national  mone}' ;  and  what  other  redemption 
should  it  need?     It  is  the   exchange,   conversion,   and   use  of    the 


MONEY APPENDIX.  221 

annual  products  that  makes  the  absokite-nioney  system  necessary ; 
and  what  greater  security  can  be  conceived  than  its  exclusive  ap[)lica- 
bility  for  that  exchange,  use,  and  conversion? 

This  money,  besides,  will  be  based  upon  the  whole  bonded  debt 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States;  for  the  whole  of  that  debt  will 
be  redeemed  b}''  this  money  grndually,  as  I  shall  show  more  at  length 
hereafter.  This  money  will,  therefore,  represent  in  reality  only  tlie 
amount  of  the  national  debt  now  owing  by  all  the  citizens  of  this 
country.  What  is  the  use,  then,  of  trying  to  redeem  in  gold  and 
silver  coin,  and  of  thereby  cancelling  a  money  medium  whicjh  repre- 
sents their  own  debts,  and  at  the  same  time  serves,  in  its  function  as 
a  circulation,  to  carry  on  all  their  business  operations  and  the  de- 
velopment of  all  their  industries  on  tlie  safest  and  most  practical 
basis  ? 

Each  citizen  being  equally  interested  in  the  cooperative  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  in  proportion  to  his  capital  and  industry, 
and  bound  to  accept  this  money  as  the  only  legal  tender  of  the  nation, 
it  is  absurd  to  speak  of  an  artificial  and  deceptive  redemption  in  specie 
in  connection  with  it.  Each  citizen  at  present  owes  his  share  of  the 
public  debt,  and  is  bound  to  pay  his  portion  of  it  out  of  his  share  of 
all  the  connnodities  and  annual  products  of  the  country  ;  and  Con- 
gress has  full  power  to  make  such  pa^-ment  legal,  and  I)ind  all  the 
citizens  to  liquidate  the  debt  by  taxing  them.  But  Congress  has 
also  full  power  to  liquidate  the  debt  by  substituting  in  its  place  an 
absolute  national  money,  and  bind  the  citizens  to  take  it,  by  making 
it  the  exclusive  legal-tender  of  the  country  ;  and  I  submit  that,  apart 
from  all  the  other  reasons  advanced  by  me,  the  immense  economy 
resulting  from  such  a  substitution  of  money  for  bonds  drawing 
interest  ought  alone  to  decide  in  its  favor. 

Based  thus  upon  all  the  products,  commodities,  the  wealth,  power, 
and  sovereignty  of  the  nation,  this  money  would  operate  in  repre- 
senting absolute  value  without  any  intrinsic  value  of  its  own, 
somewhat  hke  an  execution  issued  upon  a  judgment  for  the  collec- 
tion of,  say,  $100,000  out  of  the  proi)erty  of  a  defendant.  This,  as 
an  instrument  representing  values,  has  no  intrinsic  value  of  itself.  It 
is  a  piece  of  paper,  with  tlie  seal  of  the  court  attached  to  it,  and  an 
order  to  the  sheriff  to  levy  upon  the  defendant's  property  and  sell  it, 
to  make  the  amount  out  of  it  which  is  necessary  to  pay  the  plaintiff  's 
judgment.     The  power  of  the  execution  and  its  value,  in  fact  and  in 


222  LIBERTY    AND    LAW.  ■■: 

law,  depends  not  upon  the  value  of  the  material  on  which  it  is  writteoi 
or  printed,  but  upon  the  available  wealth  of  the  defendant  wherewith 
to  pa}'  or  satisfj^  it,  and  the  authority  of  the  State  within  whose 
jurisdiction  the  writ  is  issued,  to  compel  the  enforcement  of  the 
process.  The  same  governmental  power  that  makes  the  execution  so 
capable  of  representing  value,  gives  the  national  money  power  to 
satisfy  the  execution.  One  piece  of  paper  satisfies  the  other ;  in 
this  wa}'  the  absolute  money  issued  b}'  the  government  would  repre- 
sent all  the  available  wealth,  present  and  future,  of  the  nation  and 
each  one  of  its  taxable  inhabitants.  The  advocates  of  a  specie 
basis  sneer  at  this  proposition  of  a  currency  irredeemable  in  specie. 
But  wh}^  call  it  irredeemable,  when  I  propose  that  the  government 
shall  make  it  redeemable  in  all  the  commodities  of  the  nation,  re- 
ceivable for  all  salaries,  debts,  judgments,  and  taxes,  duties  and 
imposts,  by  constituting  it  the  only  legal-tender  for  all  time  to  come? 
It  seems  to  me,  rather,  that  specie  would  be  irredeemable,  when  once 
deprived  of  its  legal-tender  character. 

This  is  b}''  no  ineans  an  exaggerated  statement,  put  in  here  for 
antithetical  effect.  Gold,  for  instance,  is  not  "redeemable"  in  the 
greater  part  of  Asia,  Silver,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  "redeemable" 
in  Germany,  and  has  even  in  England  fallen  nine  per  cent  in  price 
during  the  last  three  years.  ^Germany  has  demonetized  $300,000,000 
of  silver  coin,  and  is  very  anxious  now  to  get  rid  of  it  at  a  consider- 
able discount.  Belgium  and  Holland  also  evince  a  disposition  to 
demonetize  silver,  and  if  they  do  there  will  be  another  $100,000,000 
thrown  upon  the  market.  But  there  is  very  little  demand  for  it. 
Nobody  wants  the  "precious  metal"  in  Europe,  strange  as  this  may 
sound  to  our  American  specie-worshippers,  who  are  always  pointing 
to  Europe  as  the  country  we  should  pattern  after  in  financial  affairs. 
The  greatest  demand  for  silver  is  in  Asiatic  countries,  amongst  the 
lower  classes  of  the  populations  of  China  and  India.  But  the  com- 
merce of  those  nations  is  so  limited,  that  their  requirements  fall  far 
short  of  the  amount  of  silver  put  up  for  sale  in  the  European  market. 
England  last  year  exported  to  the  East  and  to  Egypt  £6,840,000, 
which  is  only  some  £3,000,000  in  excess  of  her  average  annual  export 
of  silver  to  those  countries.  These  £3,000,000,  or  $15,000,000,  came 
from  Germany ;  but  if  the  demand  grows  no  larger,  the  price  of  sil- 
ver will  probably  fall  still  considerably  below  its  present  discount  of 
nine  per  cent,  especially  as  the  supply  of  that  metal  from  our  mines 


MONEY APPENDIX.  223 

in  Montana,  Nevada,  Utah,  Colorado,  and  New  Mexico  is  lilvely  to 
increase  constantly. 

And  why  is  silver  not  wanted  by  the  people  of  Europe?  Clearly 
not  because  the  opening  of  new  mines  has  produced  an  excess  of 
money  in  Europe,  as  the  specie-worshippers  argue  ;  for  if  there  were 
an  excess  of  money,  the  people  would  not  increase  their  money  circu- 
lation by  issuing  more  paper  money,  as  they  do  in  every  European 
country.  Paper  money  is  not  at  a  discount  in  England,  in  France, 
or  in  Germany.  It  is  only  specie  (silver)  money  which  has  depre- 
ciated in  value.  Let  our  specie-spouting  financiers,  in  the  Federal 
Congress  explain  why  we  should  reestablish  as  money  a  metal  which 
has  been  demonetized  in  one  of  the  largest  countries  of  Europe,  is 
now*at  a  discount  of  nine  per  cent  in  London,  and  will,  according  to 
all  appearances,  continue  to  depreciate  for  a  long  time.  "  Redeem- 
ability  "  of  our  legal  tender  in  (silver)  specie  would,  therefore,  not 
onl}^  be  a  fraud,  but  it  would  be  a  downright  swindle  perpetrated 
upon  the  holders  of  the  legal-tenders ;"  unless,  indeed,  all  three  kinds 
of  money  —  the  greenbacks,  gold,  and  silver  money  —  be  placed  on 
the  same  footing  of  perfect  equality. 

The  advocates  of  a  specie  basis  also  call  a  currency  irredeemable 
in  specie  a  forced  loan.  But  the  same  term  might  apply  to  the  gold 
and  silver  coins,  which  they  propose  to  constitute  the  exclusive 
money  of  the  country.  Besides,  has  not  the  check  and  draft  system 
of  our  banks  also  the  character  of  a  forced  loan  ?  And  ought  the 
largest  corporation  of  a  country,  the  government  itself,  to  be  deprived 
of  a  privilege  which  it  confers  now  upon  the  directors  of  every  village 
bank  which  it  charters?  Is  it  not  a  downright  absurdity  that  we 
should  pay  $20,000,000  in  gold  annually  in  interest  to  national  banks, 
for  giving  them  the  privilege  of  issuing  a  currency  upon  the  security 
of  our  government  bonds,  when  the  government  itself  could  issue 
such  a  currency  with  equal  security,  and  at  a  great  saving  to  the 
people  at  large  ? 

And  is  it  not  equally  absurd  to  look  upon  the  legal-tender  notes  of 
the  national  government  as  unsecured  because  they  have  no  "specie 
basis,"  and  at  the  same  time  to  speak  of  the  notes  of  the  national 
banks  as  secured  because  they  have  a  "bond  basis?"  The  legal- 
tender  note  is  a  paper  issue  of  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  so  is  the  bond  pledged  for  the  redemption  of  the  issue  of  the 


224  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

national  banks.  Is  the  bond,  which  bears  interest,  a  better  secnrity 
than  the  legal  tender,  which  bears  no  interest?  I  should  say,  rather 
the  reverse ;  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  amount  of  the  legal- 
tender  notes  does  not  increase  by  the  accumulation  of  interest.  It 
is  gratifying,  however,  to  notice  that  the  minds  of  the  people  at 
large  are  gradually  becoming  convinced  of  the  uselessness  and  expen- 
siveness  of  this  national-banking  system,  and  warrants  the  hope  that 
they  will  also,  in  course  of  time,  see  the  uselessness  of  the  bond 
system,  and  the  immense  advantage  of  substituting  in  its  place  a 
pure  legal-tender  money,  large  enough  in  volume  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  all  the  business,  trade,  and  manufactures  of  this  vast  coun- 
try. That  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  ultimately  establish 
such  a  money,  I  do  not  doubt  in  the  least,  since  even  some  ot  our 
most  eminent  public  men  have  already  cast  off  their  old  superstitious 
faith  in  the  almighty  power  of  coin  as  money.  Thus,  the  Hon. 
George  Opd^  ke,  who  is  not  only  distinguished  as  a  political  econ- 
omist, but  also  as  a  practical  banker,  defines  money,  not  as  gold  and 
silver  coin,  or  the  representatives  of  coin,  but  as  "an  instrument  of 
commerce  designed  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  all  other  commod- 
ities, by  presenting  an  equivalent  in  a  portable  and  convenient  shape." 
And  the  Hon.  O.  S.  Halsted,  ex-chancellor  of  New  Jersey,  in  quoting 
Mr.  Opdyke's  definition,  in  a  letter  to  the  Hon.  John  G.  Drew,  of 
Massachusetts,  who  also  is  a  convert  from  the  faith  in  coin  almigiiti- 
ness,  says :  — 

"I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  agree  in  Mr.  Opdyke's  definition  of 
money.  We  hear  it  said  nowadays  that  gold  is  mere  merchandise. 
Gold-dust,  ingots,  and  nuggets  are  merchandise,  *  *  *  ^ut  gold 
coined  by  government  is  money.  A  government,  hoiuever,  can  make 
money  ^  of  any  material,  and  of  any  shape  and  value  it  pleases.  Our 
government  has  made  what  we  call  legal-tenders  money,  or  instru- 
ments of  commerce ;  can  it  be  said  that  those  legal-tender  notes  are 
merchandise?  One  and  the  same  thing  cannot  be  both  money  and 
mei'chandise." 

In  this  place  I  may  as  well  answer  the  objections  which  Mr.  Patter- 
son raises  in  his  work,  "The  Economy  of  Capital/'  against  such  a 
system  of  national  absolute  money  as  I  have  proposed.     The  reader 


1  Opdyke's  "  Instrument  of  Commerce." 


MONKY APPENDIX.  225 

will  have  already  seen,  from  the  various  quotations  I  have  made  from 
Mr.  Patterson's  excellent  work,  that  in  the  main  his  views  on  finance 
agree  entirely  with  mine.  He  holds,  as  I  do,  that  the  value  assignerl 
to  gold  as  the  exclusive  money-medium,  or,  as  Mr.  Patterson  phrases 
it,  the  "canonization"  of  gold,  has  its  origin  simply  in  fiction  or 
superstition.  He  holds,  as  I  do,  that  it  makes  no  difference  at  all 
whether  the  substance  of  which  money  is  composed  has  any  intrinsic 
value  at  all ;  "that  gold,  silver,  copper,  iron,  shells,  pieces  of  silk, 
cotton  strips,  stamped  leather,  and  stamped  paper"  have  been  used 
and  are  used  in  different  parts  of  the  world  as  money  with  equal 
success ;  and  that  the  one  quality  which  gives  the  substances  their 
circulating  power  as  money  is  simply  "  the  agreement  on  the  part  of 
nations  to  recognize  those  substances  as  representatives  of  wealth." 
Mr.  Patterson  agrees  with  me,  furthermore,  that  gold  and  silver  are 
altogether  unsuited  and  inadequate  to  carry  on  the  trade,  commerce, 
and  enterprises  of  modern  times  ;  unsuited,  on  account  of  their  weight,, 
their  susceptibility  to  wear,  and  their  great  bulk  ;  inadequate,  because 
the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  world  would  not  be  able  to  trans- 
act five  i)er  cent  of  the  world's  business,  — not  even  the  business  of 
London  alone.  Mr.  Patterson,  therefore,  agrees  with  me,  that  it  is  an 
absurdity,  and  productive  of  constant  financial  distresses,  if  the  busi- 
ness of  the  world  makes  still  the  pretence  of  being  carried  on  upon  a 
specie  basis  ;  -especially  as  the  banks,  through  whom  the  interchange 
of  that  business  is  effected,  are  constantly  crippled  by  being  supposed 
to  operate  upon  a  specie  V)asis,  which  they  demonstratively  cannot  do. 
He  proposes,  therefore,  that  paper  money,  which  has  hitherto  been 
only  a  representative  of  gold  money,  should  become  a  substitute  for 
gold  money,  —  the  same  proposition  that  I  have  made. 

But  from  this  point  on  we  differ.  Whilst  I  propose  that  the  paper 
money  should  be  only  of  one  kind  and  issued  by  the  nation,  guaran- 
teed by  the  annual  products,  trade,  commerce,  business,  and  all  the 
power,  wealth,  and  sovereignty  of  the  nation,  and  made  the  exclusive 
legal-tender  over  the  whole  country,  Mr.  Patterson  would  have  the 
issue  of  currency  intrusted  to  a  number  of  private  banks,  and  leave 
it  to  the  discretion  of  the  bank  directors  and  the  confidence  of  the 
people  how  large  such  issue  should  be.  But  I  will  let  Mr.  Patterson 
speak  for  himself,  both  in  regard  to  his  argument  against  a  national 
bank  and  in  favor  of  private  banks.      Having  alluded  to  our  American 

15 


226  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

legal-tender  issue,  of  wliich  he  speaks  as  in  the  nature  of  State  bank 
issues,  he  says  :  ^  — 

.  '-A  State  bank^  would  unquestionably  have  certain  advantages. 
Its  notes  being  receivable  in  payment  of  taxes,  and  being  issued  on 
the  security  of  government,  would  be  made  a  legal  tender  throughout 
the  kingdom.  They  would  furnish  an  adequate  currency  for  the 
whole  internal  trade  and  domestic  requirements  of  the  country.  And 
thus,  in  great  emergencies  and  exceptional  times,  these  State  notes 
would  supply  an  adequate  currency  for  the  country,  even  if,  owing 
to  an  absence  of  gold,  they  were  temporarily  inconvertible.  Nay, 
more :  bj"  means  of  such  a  State  currency,  the  precious  metals,  a)icl 
the  fluctuation  inseparable  from  them,  could  he  dissociated  from  the 
currency,  and  their  value  ivould  be  measured  in  it  like  that  of  all  other 
commodities.  With  such  a  currency,  in  fact,  gold  and  silver  would 
be  bought  and  sold  just  like  corn  or  coal,  iron  or  cotton. 

"Attractive  as  such  a  currency  system  is,  it  is  open  to  what  we 
regard  as  a  fatal  objection.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  State  currency 
alone  that  the  paper  money  of  a  countr}^  can  be  depreciated.  The 
note  issues  of  banks  never  cause  the  currency  to  become  redundant, 
*  *  *  for  the  banks  of  a  country  have  no  motive  to  diminish  their 
profits  by  unduly  lowering  the  rate  of  discount ;  and  if  there  he  no 
undue  lorcering  of  the  rate  of  discount,  there  can  be  notmdue  expansion 
of  the  currency .  The  trading  and  industrial  classes  will  not  pay  for 
more  discounts  than  they  want ;  and  it  is  only  hy  means  of  discount 
operations,  and  such  like  advances,  that  a  bank  can  get  its  notes  into 
circulation.  But  with  a  government  the  case  is  widel}'  different.  A 
government  expends  many  millions  of  money  ever}'  year,  and  all 
these  payments  can  be  made  in  its  own  notes.  Any  amount  of  jxtjjer 
money  may  thus  be  forced  into  circulation,  ivhether  there  is  a  demand 
for  It  or  not." 

Before  proceeding  to  answer  Mr.  Patterson's  objection  to  a 
"State  (or  national)  bank,"  and  his  arguments  in  favor  of  pri- 
vate banks,  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  a  singular  admission  on  his 
part  in  favor  of  a  "  State  bank,"  to  which  he  attaches  paramount 


'  Tlie  Economy  of  Capital,  p.  343. 

'■'  Whenever  Mr.  Patterson  uses  the  term  "  State  bank,"  let  the  American 
reader  transhite  it,  "Bank  of  the  United  States,"  as  the  States  of  our  Union 
are  not  States  within  the  European  meaninjjj  of  the  word. 


MONEY APPENDIX.  227 

significance  in  various  other  parts  of  his  book.  He  says  that  the 
fluctuations  inseparable  from  a  specie  basis  could  be  dissociated 
from  a  "State  bank"  currency,  and  that  the  value  of  the  precious 
metals  would  be  measured  in  it  like  that  of  all  other  commodities. 
This  means,  of  course,  that  such  a  "State"  or  national  currency 
would  be  subject  to  no  fluctuation  whatever,  —  a  pro|)osition  which  I 
have  conclusively  demonstrated  in  previous  parts  of  this  work, —  and 
that  "  no  variations  could  take  place  in  it  as  a  measure  of  value,"  to 
use  Mr.  Patterson's  own  words.  But  this  "variation"  is  precisely 
the  main  objection  which  he  raises  against  the  present  money-system 
of  Great  Britain.  He  says:  ^  "  Far  greater  and  infinitely  more  inju- 
rious to  the  community"  than  a  change  in  other  measures  would 
be,  "are  the  variations  which  at  present  take  place  in  our  measure 
of  value.  That  measure"  —  the  money-measure  of  the  bank-notes 
issued  on  a  specie  basis —  "  is  constantl}^  expanding  and  contracting 
in  a  manner  that  baffles  all  calculation.  It  varies  sometimes  even  to 
the  extent  of  a  third  or  a  fourth,  —  to  the  extent  of  twenty-five  or 
even  thirty  per  cent."  By  which  he  means  that  the  expansion  or 
contraction  of  the  volume  of  currency,  which  volume  here  he  calls 
the  measure  of  values,  raises  or  lowers  the  price  of  commodities  ;  a 
pure  assumption,  as  I  shall  show,  and  as  Mr.  Patterson  elsewhere  also 
admits,  since  the  volume  of  currency  or  circulation  has  very  little  to 
do  with  the  prices  of  things,  unless  it  becomes  so  small  as  to  paralyze 
or  cripple  trade. 

Now,  Mr.  Patterson  supposes  that  this  money-measure  of  Great 
Britain  can  be  made  far  more  uniform  if  the  circulation  of  the  country 
is  so  regulated  as  to  avoid  recurring  scarcity  or  redundancy ;  and 
since  that  circulation  is  composed  of  two  factors,  —  specie  and  bank- 
notes,—  his  proposition  is,  that  as  specie  is  withdrawn,  more  notes 
should  be  issued  to  take  its  place  and  fulfil  its  functions,  whilst  if 
specie  accumulates,  notes  should  be  withdrawn.  But  if  there  "is  an 
extra  demand  for  money,"  then  an  extra  issue  of  notes  should  be 
made  also;  since  in  that  case  the  effect  of  such  issue  would  be  simply 
"  to  preserve  the  measure  of  value  unchanged."^ 

This  would  still  give  a  sort  of  specie-basis  to  the  banking  sj^stem 
of  Great  Britain,  and  hence  would  leave  unremoved  the  difficulty 


1  Economy  of  Capital,  p.  28G. 
*  Economy  of  Capital,  p.  297. 


228  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

which  the  financiers  of  that  kingdom  have  never  been  able  to  solve  : 
to  organize  a  banking  system  upon  a  specie  basis  which  would  furnish 
the  people  a  permanently  reliable  "  measure  of  value;  "  Mr.  Patter- 
son himself  admitting  that  no  stable  or  fixed  measure  of  value  has- 
ever  existed  in  the  United  Kingdom  since  the  organization  of  the- 
Bank  of  England,  in  1696.  For,  no  matter  how  the  witlidrawal  or 
accumulation  of  coin  and  the  issue  of  bank-notes  may  be  made  to- 
correspond  with  each  other,  two  great  factors  will  always  act  as  dis- 
turbing elements  and  vary  the  "measure  of  value,"  namely:  first, 
the  growth  of  trade  and  enterprise ;  and,  secondly,  the  increase  of 
gold  and  silver  money  from  the  mines,  —  an  increase  that,  during  the 
past  twenty-seven  years,  has  reached  the  large  sum  of  over 
$2,400,000,000,  and  during  the  operation  of  which  the  "measure  of 
value  "  has  become  more  uncertain  than  ever,  and  panics  consequently 
more  destructive.  And  it  must  further  be  taken  into  consideration, 
that  this  uncertain  and  constantly  fluctuating  increase  of  specie  money 
is  made  still  more  variable  b}'^  the  wear  of  the  precious  metals.  In 
gold,  intrinsically  the  most  worthless  of  all  metals,  this  wear  assumes- 
astonishing  proportions.  The  gold- worshippers  may  find  it  rather 
hard  to  believe,  but  it  has  nevertheless  been  ascertained  by  careful* 
calculations  in  various  countries,  that  the  gold  coins  of  a  country,  in 
actual  circulation,  lose  about  one-hundredth  part  in  value  every  year 
from  mere  wear.  A  thousand  dollars  of  gold  coins  are  thus  reduced 
to  zero  within  one  hundred  years;  and  the  above  $2,400,000,000 
added  to  the  world's  metal  money  in  the  course  of  the  last  twenty- 
seven  years  have  been  already  reduced  by  wear  to  about  $1,752,- 
000,000. 

If  Mr.  Patterson,  however,  really  does  not  desire  a  specie  basis,  and 
proposes  to  bring  permanency  into  the  "  measure  of  value  "  of  Great 
Britain  by  leaving  the  issue  of  paper  money  solely  to  private  banks, 
he  will  still  less  accomplish  his  object  by  that  plan.  And  this  leads 
me  to  the  promised  criticism  of  his  sj^stem  and  its  comparison  with 
mine. 

If  there  is  no  governmental  money  in  a  countrj-,  — this  is  Mr.  Patter- 
son's argument, — no  government  bank,  in  short,  under  the  control  of 
legislation,  but  if  the  issue  of  bank-notes  is  left  entirely  to  private 
incorporated  banks,  unrestrained  by  law  in  an}^  manner,  and  kept  in 
check  only  by  the  demands,  needs,  and  confidence  of  the  i)eople, 
then  that  country  will  have  a  perfect  sj-stem  of  banking,  and  fiuctiia- 


MONEY APPENDIX.  229 

tion  in  the  value  of  the  "  inone3^-measure"  will  be  next  to  impossible. 
Tlie  (liscoiiiit  operations  of  these  private  banks  will  be,  in  Mr.  P.'s 
opinion,  the  restraining  element  against  excessive  expansion;  "since 
it  is  only  by  means  of  discount  and  such  like  advances  that  a  bank 
■can  get  its  notes  into  circulation,"  and  since  "the  trading  and  indus- 
trial classes  will  not  pay  for  more  discounts  than  they  want." 

It  were  well  if  this  were  true,  —  if  people  would  not  borrow  any 
more  money  than  they  needed !  If  this  were  so,  we  should  have  less 
"enterprise  "  in  the  world,  but  also  proportionately  less  bankruptcy  and 
financial  distress.  But  the  whole  history  of  finance  proves  rather  the 
reverse,  namely,  that  people  will  pay  discount  for  all  the  money  they 
<3an  get,  no  matter  what  kind  of  money  it  is.  Whether  a  bank  has  a 
right  to  issue  money,  or  whether  by  issuing  it  the  bank  endangers  its 
financial  position,  the  borrower  does  not  stop  to  inquire  ;  all  that  he 
cares  for  is,  that  the  money  shall  serve  his  immediate  use.  He  wants 
to  build  a  railroad,  for  instance,  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  the 
bank  with  which  he  negotiates  his  loan.  The  bank  has  no  notes  to 
spare  just  now;  but  under  Mr.  Patterson's  rule,  that  the  loan  would 
not  be  asked  for  if  there  were  not  an  actual  need  of  the  money,  the 
bank  issues  as  many  notes  as  the  borrower  desires.  He  builds  his 
road  and  pays  out  the  notes,  which  thus  become  scattered  all  over 
the  country.  What  does  he  care  whether  the  notes  remain  current 
or  not?  Suppose  that  the  railroad  enterprise  turns  out  a  failure  be- 
fore he  has  re^xiid  the  bank  its  advance.  Will  not  the  bank  bear  the 
whole  loss?  And  will  not  every  bank,  under  the  operation  of  such  an 
unchecked  system,  be  tempted  to  negotiate  just  such  loans,  and  in 
such"  amounts  as  must  necessarily  drive  them  in  the  end  into  bank- 
ruptc}^?  It  is  true  that  in  Scotland  a  similar  system  has  been  ex- 
tremely successful.  But  Scotland  is  a  small  country,  and  its  people 
are  exceptionally  prudent  and  honest.  The  experience  of  every 
country  in  the  world  where  such  unchecked  issues  of  private  bank- 
ing corporations  have  been  tried,  contradict  the  experience  of  Scot- 
land flagrantly. 

In  this  country  we  have  had  special  facilities  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  practical  operation  of  Mr.  P.'s  l)anking  scheme.  A  number 
of  ni\'  readers  will  recollect  tlie  results  that  followed  President  Jack- 
son's breaking  up  of  the  United  States  Bank,  and  the  removal  of  the 
Federal  treasury-deposits  to  the  State  banks,  which  were  precisely 
such  private  incorporated  l)anks  of  issue  and  discount  as  the  Scottish 


230  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

banks,  that  are  Mr.  P.'s  ideal.  From  1833  to  1837  the  issues  of 
those  banks  and  their  discounts  were  so  excessive,  that  a  universal 
speculating  mania  set  in,  which  was  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
by  a  general  suspension  and  financial  depression,  so  terrible  in  its 
effects  that  it  took  the  country  full  ten  years  to  recover  from  it. 
On  a  still  larger  scale  —  in  proportion  as  the  settlement  of  the  coun- 
try had  enlarged  and  new  States  been  added  to  the  Union  —  was  the' 
panic  of  1857.  Again,  every  State  had  its  countless  numbers  of 
banks  of  issue  and  discount,  all  of  them  practically  unchecked  in 
their  operations  ;  for  although  the  law  required  each  bank  to  hold  a 
certain  proportion  of  their  circulation  in  gold  on  hand  in  their  vaults 
(in  most  of  the  States  one-third),  that  regulation  was  virtuall}'  inop- 
erative. Supervision  by  the  law,  or  by  the  banks  themselves  over 
each  other,  was  in  fact  absolutely  impossible,  considering  the  num- 
ber of  banks  and  their  remote  locations.  The  demand  for  discount 
was  unlimited.  Everywhere  railroads  were  constructed,  towns  built, 
land  bought  and  put  in  cultivation,  manufactories  started ;  and 
nearly  all  this  enterprise  was  carried  on  by  money  obtained  from  the 
banks,  who  never  thought  of  "  lowering  their  rate  of  discount"  as 
they  increased  their  circulation,  — as  Mr.  P.  seems  to  think  must  be 
the  effect  of  expansion,  —  but,  on  the  contrary,  were  generally  enabled 
to  raise  their  rate  of  discount  in  the  face  of  this  universal  demand  for 
money.  Suddenly  a  small  storm-cloud  of  distrust  arose  in  New  York, 
owing  to  the  suspension  of  a  large  bank,  the  Ohio  Life  and  Trust 
Company,  and  spread  with  the  speed  of  lightning  over  the  whole 
country,  letting  loose  all  the  fury  and  violence  of  a  mone^-  hurricane. 
Every  bank  was  forced  to  suspend,  the  greatest  number  forever.  It 
is  true,  that  the  more  cautious  and  stronger  banks  of  New  York  City 
and  Boston,  although  obliged  to  suspend  temporarily',  were  able  to 
come  out  right  again  after  the  first  violence  of  the  storm  had  passed 
over,  and  that  the  circulation  of  those  banks  never  depreciated ;  but 
the  number  of  incautious  banks  was  incomparably  larger.  Nor  can 
I  conceive  by  what  methods  and  regulations  the  imprudent,  excessive 
issue  of  circulation  and  discounts  which  brought  on  the  panic  of 
1857  can  be  prcA'-ented,  especially  where  the  number  of  banks  is  so 
large,  and  where  they  are  scattered  over  so  extensive  a  territor}'^  as 
the  United  States.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  amount  of  money 
put  forth  by  those  banks  in  1857  was  larger  than  the  country-  needed 
at  the  time.;  likely  enough,  it  was  not  even  sufficient.     But  as  that 


MONEY APPENDIX.  231 

paper  money  was  issued  by  private  banking  corporations,  it  had 
necessarily  a  "redeemable  basis," — which  at  that  time  was  a  specie 
basis,  —  and  this  was  the  real  cause  of  the  runs  on  the  banks  and  the 
consequent  suspensions.  Had  those  banks  been  national  banks  or 
private  banks,  using  for  their  circulation  national  legal-tender  note:-* 
irredeemable  in  specie,  but  convertible  into  all  the  products  of  trade 
and  industr}^  in  the  nation,  there  would  have  been  no  runs  and  no 
suspensions,  even  if  the  circulating  medium  had  been  twice  as  large. 
This  has  been  shown  by  the  panic  of  1873,  when  there  was  no  run  to 
speak  of  upon  national  banks  for  the  redemption  of  their  notes  in 
legal-tender  money,  and  when  gold  was  lower  in  price  than  it  had 
ever  been  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  or  has  ever  been  since. 

And  this  brings  me  —  having  shown  Mr.  Patterson's  argument  in 
favor  of  private  banks  to  rest  on  a  false  presupposition  —  to  meet  his 
objection  against  a  national  money-S3'stem  such  as  I  have  proposed 
in  this  work;  for  he  has  only  one  objection  to  such  a  money,  thousJi 
he  admits  its  advantages  to  be  numerous  and  great.  He  admits  that 
an  absolute  national  money-system  would  furnish  "  an  adequate  cur- 
rency for  the  ivhole  trade  and  domestic  requirements  of  the  country  ;  " 
adequate  even  "•  in  great  emergencies  and  exceptional  times,  and 
even  "if  they  were  temporarily  convertible  into  specie."  Nay,  he 
admits  that  such  a  State  or  national  currency  would  put  an  end  to 
the  fluctuations  arising  from  a  specie  basis,  and  thus  achieve  the 
greatest  of  all  financial  desiderata^ — an  unchangeable  measure  of 
values. 

And  what  is  the  one  objection  which,  in  Mr.  P. 's  opinion,  outweigiis 
all  these  admitted  and  inestimable  blessings?  Because  "it  is  in 
the  form  of  a  State  [national]  currency  alone  that  the  paper  money 
of  a  country  can  be  depreciated."  Wh}'?  The  answer  shows  the 
weakness  of  Mr.  Patterson's  objection  most  clearly.  Because  "a 
government  expends  man}'  millions  of  money  every  year,  and  all 
these  payments  can  be  made  in  its  own  notes."  As  if  every  govern- 
ment did  not  possess  this  right  to  issue  bonds,  notes,  or  any  other 
kind  of  pledges  to  meet  financial  emergencies,  no  matter  whether 
there  are  private  banks  of  issue  in  existence  or  not!  That  power  of 
a  government,  therefore,  which  Mr.  Patterson  considers  the  onlj^ 
.objection  to  a  national  money-issue,  namely,  the  power  to  increase 
its  mone}^  or  debts  by  new  issues  for  either  annual  or  extraordinary 
expenses,   cannot  be  taken   away  from   a  government  at  all,  being 


232  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

inherent  in  its  sovereignty.  Hence,  so  far  as  that  objection  is  con- 
cerned, it  is  altogether  indifferent  whether  a  government  is  always 
the  exclusive  issuer  of  bank-notes  for  a  country,  or  whether  it  leaves 
such  issue  to  private  banks  during  orduiary  times,  and  resorts  to 
issues  of  its  own  only  during  extraordinary  times.  In  truth,  Mr. 
Patterson  himself,  in  other  parts  of  his  work,'  seems  to  suggest  that 
government,  or  "  ordinary  legislation,"  as  he  says,  ought  to  exercise 
that  power  in  extraordinarj'  times,  namely,  the  power  of  increasing  the 
money  circulation  of  the  country.  Or  else,  what  does  he  mean  when 
he  congratulates  Great  Britain  that  "  a  great  war  and  serious  neces- 
sities of  the  State"  forced  the  govermnent  to  introduce  the  bless- 
ings of  paper  mone^y  into  that  country,  and  expresses  a  belief  that 
'•'■another  great  war  and  pressure  of  State  necessities"  would  do 
away  with  the  last  "errors  of  the  bullionist  theory;"  which  can 
onl}''  mean,  in  the  connection,  that  it  would  end  in  the  abolition  of  a 
specie  basis,  and  in  the  issue  of  more  money,  directly  and.  indirectly, 
through  the  government.  What  Mr.  Patterson  says  of  the  French 
assignats,  and  other  national-money  schemes  of  the  past,  I  have  con- 
troverted elsewhere ;  but  when  he  cites  our  greenbacks  in  the  same 
categor}',  he  is  essentially  mistaken.  The  strict  truth  is,  that  our 
greenl)acks  have  never  been  a  depreciated  currency ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  price  of  all  commodities,  with  the  exception  of  gold  and  silver, 
has  remained  pretty  well  stationary  during  all  the  issue  of  green- 
backs. The  few  things  that  rose  in  value  beyond  the  ordinary  rate 
were  chiefly  war  necessaries ;  but  then  numberless  other  things  fell 
in  price  for  some  time.  I  need  merely  allude  to  real  estate  in  most 
parts  of  the  country. 

Greenbacks  had,  therefore,  not  depreciated.  But  it  has  become 
the  fashion  of  late  to  state,  as  an  axiom  which  no  man  would  dare  to 
dispute,  that  it  was  not  gold  which  was  at  a  premium  here,  but  our 
greenbacks  which  were  at  a  discount.  That  this  axiom  is  utterly 
false,  appears  from  what  I  have  just  said.  If  greenbacks  were  at  a 
discount,  the  price  of  all  commodities  would  be  raised  in  proportion 
to  the  discount.  But  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  it  was  and  is  only 
gold  and  silver  upon  which  the  price  has  been  raised.  Though  gold 
was  quoted  at  fifty  per  cent  pi'emiura,  as  against  greenbacks,  in  Wall 
Street  on  one  day,  and  at  two  hundred  per  cent  premium  a  few  days 


^  See,  especially,  pp.  455,  456. 


MONEY — APPP:iSDIX.  233 

after,  the  price  in  greenbaclvs  of  lauds,  houses,  reuts,  groceries, 
uearly  all  the  dry  goods,  etc.,  remained  quietly  the  same.  The  cur- 
rency, tlierefore,  was  not  depreciated,  but  gold  was,  through  the 
agency  of  coin  and  stock  gambling,  at  a  premium.  So  was  gun- 
powder and  labor ;  so  were  cannons  and  cannon-balls ;  and  these 
were  real  premiums  i)rodnced  by  tlie  stern  demands  of  war. 

If  tliat  sort  of  argumentation  held  good,  that  our  currency  depre- 
ciated during  the  war,  because  Wall  Street  speculation,  of  the  wildest, 
most  unsubstantial  kind,  sent  the  price  of  gold  up  to  two  hundred 
and  seventy-fiA^e  per  cent  premium  for  a  short  time,  what  must  we  say 
of  the  depreciation  which  gold  suffered  in  England  during  the  same 
period  ;  since  the  price  of  cotton  rose  in  that  country,  from  1860  to 
1864,  full  four  hundred  per  cent.  As  against  cotton,  tliegold  money 
of  Great  Britain  had,  therefore,  depreciated  considerabl}'  more  than 
our  legal-tender  money  had  depreciated  as  against  gold  in  Wall 
Street,  with  all  the  stock  and  coin  gamblers  to  support  it.  And, 
what  is  more,  the  legal-tender  depreciation  here  was  merel}'  a  specu- 
lative affair,  while  the  gold  depreciation  as  against  cotton  in  Great 
Britain  was  a  grim  reality,  for  awhile  spreading  fearful  ruin  over  the 
manufacturing  districts.  The  demand  for  cotton  and  gold  in  the 
respective  localities  regulated  the  price  of  each  commodity,  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  trade. 

But  I  go  further,  and  deny  Mr.  Patterson's  assumption,  that  under 
a  well-regulated  national-money  system,  like  mine,  the  government 
would  settle  its  pa^'ments  in  its  own  notes,  and  thus  force  "any 
amount  of  paper  money  into  circulation."  Its  yearly  payments 
would  be  settled  by  its  yearly  revenues,  which  by  close  calculation 
can  always  be  made  large  enough  to  meet  every  contingency.  Should 
there  be  a  deficiency,  however,  I  don't  see  why  it  would  be  more  im- 
proper to  supply  it  by  an  issue  of  treasury-notes  than  by  an  issue  of 
bonds,  as  governments  are  now  in  the  habit  of  doing.  I  am  fully 
convinced,  however,  that  a  well-regulated  system  of  annual  statistics, 
and  a  carefully  prepared  report  made  by  a  board  of  commissioners, 
based  upon  those  statistics,  and  stating  the  amount  of  additional 
mone}^  if  any,  needed  by  the  country,  would  render  Siuy  extra 
issues  unnecessary,  except  in  the  case  of  another  war. 


234  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   NATUEE   OF   HIGHWAYS. 

The  State  guarantees  to  each  citizen  full  protection  in  the  harmo- 
nious and  fit  enjoyment  of  all  the  faculties  of  his  mind  and  body.  In 
order  to  be  able  to  make  good  this  guarantee,  the  State  must  be  able 
to  have  access  to  all  citizens,  and  they  with  each  other  and  with  the 
State.  Tlie  right  of  the  State  to  have  such  access  constitutes  its  right 
and  duty  to  lay  out  public  highways  and  regulate  the  intercourse 
thereby  established  between  its  citizens.  The  State  must,  moreover, 
have  the  right  of  the  speediest  access  to  its  citizens,  for  how  could 
the  State  guarantee  protection  to  each  citizen  if  other  citizens  had 
speedier  access  to  him  ?  If  the  State  had  control  only  over  common 
roads,  while  criminall}'  aggressive  citizens  had  control  over  railwa3's, 
where  would  be  the  sovereign  power? 

Furthermore,  since  in  a  well-regulated  State  each  citizen  has  his 
specific  vocation,  and  thus  is  dependent  upon  being  able  to  have 
transmitted  to  him  the  productions  of  all  other  vocations  which  he 
stands  in  need  of,  the  State  must  be  in  a  position  to  govern  all  such 
transmission,  and  hence  miist  have  full  control  over  all  means  of 
transmission  or  communication,  of  whicli  there  are  at  present  three: 
those  of  postal,  those  of  telegraphic,  and  those  of  commercial  inter- 
communication. For  in  no  other  way  could  the  State  guarantee  to 
each  citizen  his  riglit  to  all  the  products  of  others  which  are  purchas- 
able, and  which  lie,  by  his  labors  in  his  vocation,  is  able  to  purchase. 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  235 


CHAPTER    11. 

THE   MAIL   AND   THE   TELEGRAPH. 

t 

For  some  inscrutable  reason,  the  State  has  hitherto  conceived  it  to 
be  the  duty  of  government  to  take  control  of  only  one  species  of 
intercommunication  :  that  of  letters.  For  this  reason,  government 
has  established  a  post-office  department,  by  means  of  which  all  its 
citizens  are  guaranteed  the  right  of  correspondence  by  written  letter. 
At  the  same  time,  this  department  has  selected  chiefly  one  species  of 
merchandise  for  governmental  transmission :  that  of  printed  matter, 
though  only  to  a  limited  extent.  It  is  hard  to  say  why,  with  the  inven- 
tion of  the  telegraph  as  a  quicker  mode  of  communication  than  that 
by  letter,  government  did  not  at  once  take  control  of  it.  The  same 
principle  underlies  the  telegraph  as  the  mail :  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  State  to  secure  to  each  citizen  sure  communication  with  everj^ 
other  citizen  in  the  quickest  possible  manner.  To  leav^e  this  matter 
to  private  corporations  is  unsafe,  and  leads  to  the  establishment  of 
monopolies,  that  are  a  constant  oppression  of  the  people  and  a  per- 
manent danger  to  the  State  itself. 

In  a  well-organized  government,  therefore,  the  State  itself  will 
take  possession  of  all  lines  of  telegraph,  and  operate  them  exclusively 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people ;  and  submarine  lines  of  telegraph  con- 
necting foreign  States  across  oceans,  gulfs,  lakes,  and  baj's  should 
be  put  under  the  control  of  the  two  States  thus  connected,  so  that 
neither  the  people  nor  the  government  of  those  States  ma}^  be  depend- 
ent upon,  and  at  the  mercy  of  private  monopolies. 

It  is  no  eas}^  task  to  make  men  realize  the  danger  threatening  from 
such  an  extraordinary  monopoly  as  the  telegraph  system  has  grown 
to  be  in  our  country.  Sure  of  the  permanence  of  our  republican  in- 
stitutions, we  allow  these  agencies  of  tyranny  to  grow  up  without 
check  or  hinderance,  and  to  increase  their  power  by  consuming  the 
lesser  attempts  at  rivalry  and  competition  in  tlie  simplest  manner, — 
that  is  to  sa^s  by  buying  them  out.  All  E^uropean  States,  one  after 
another,  have  found  it  necessary  to  take  control  of  the  telegraph,  and 
in  every  case  the  result  has  been  of  the  greatest  advantage  and  profit 
to  the  people.      Great  Britain  was  the  last  one  to  take  the  control  of 


236  *  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  telegraph  from  private  monopolies  and  exercise  it  solely  for  the 
advantage  of  the  State  at  large  ;  and  while  under  corporate  manage- 
ment the  telegraphic  communications  had  increased  only  from  six 
millions  in  18i0  to  eight  millions  in  1868,  which  is  an  average  annual 
increase  of  only  fifteen  *per  cent,  under  the  management  of  the  gov- 
ernment the  business  steadily  increased  at  an  annual  average  of  thirty- 
three  per  cent.  This  extraordinary  result  was  mainly  due  to  the  fact 
that  when  the  British  government  took  charge  of  all  the  telegraph 
lines,  in  1870,  it  at  once  lowered  the  rates  one-third. 

Private  corporations  are  always  verj'  slow  in  reducing  rates.  If 
the  mail  business  had  been  put  into  the  hands  of  private  express 
companies,  the  postal  charges  would  still  be  at  rates  now  long  since 
abolished.  But  the  government,  being  interested  in  no  dividend  ac- 
count, and  making  its  calculations  onlj'^  on  the  basis  of  accommodat- 
ing the  greatest  number  of  people,  without  any  other  expense  than 
Ihe  mere  accommodation  costs,  acts  on  an  entirely  different  principle, 
and  accordingly  invites  additional  business  by  lowering  rates.  We 
all  know  what  an  immense  increase  of  letter-writing  followed  the 
introduction  of  the  present  low  rates  of  postage.  "Were  government  to 
take  hold  of  the  telegraph  lines  and  reduce  the  rates  as  Great  Britain 
has  done,  or  Belgium,  the  business  of  the  telegraph  would  douVjtless 
quadruple  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  years.  As  it  is,  our  rates  of 
telegraphing  are  twice  as  high  as  the  rates  are  in  England,  and  three 
times  as  high  as  rates  in  Belgium ;  and  the  result  has  been,  that  while 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  messages  sent  in  Great  Britain  since 
1870  has  been  an  average  of  thirty-three  per  cent  per  annum,  the 
increase  in  our  country  has  been  only  sixteen  per  cent.  .The  people 
have  a  right  to  the  speediest  and  cheapest  mode  of  intercommunica- 
tion with  each  other,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  furnish 
it,  and  guarantee  its  accuracj^  and  certainty. 

Still,  it  is  not  alone  in  this  respect  that  the  telegraph  business  needs 
the  control  of  the  government.  It  not  only  hinders  intercommunica- 
tion under  private  management,  but  it  has  become  one  of  the  monop- 
olies that  virtually  rule  the  countr}'  with  despotic  swa}'.  Its  growth 
into  this  power  is  a  curious  one,  though  the  same  phenomenon  has 
been  witnessed  in  ever}'  other  country  that  first  allowed  private  cf)r- 
porations  to  undertake  enterprises  that  were  peculiarly  within  ili,'. 
right  and  duty  of  the  State  to  establish. 


PUIiLIC    HIGHWAYS.  237 

No  sooner  did  the  first  telegraph  between  Washington  and  New 
York  prove  a  success,  than  all  over  the  country  occurred  a  general 
pole-raising  and  wire-stretching,  wholly  regardless  of  the  immediate 
prospects  of  sufficient  earnings  to  maintain  tlie  lines.  In  our  usual 
style,  we  discounted  the  future  most  liberally,  organized  small  com- 
panies in  the  various  villages  of  the  land,  and  looked  on  composedly 
as  one  after  the  other  broke  up,  the  larger  ones  feeding  on  the  smaller 
awhile,  then  themselves  swallowed  b}^  tlie  still  larger  ones,  until  only 
two  were  left  to  devour  each  other,  — the  Western  Union,  with  the 
main  business  of  the  country  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and 
over  all  the  Northern  States,  and  the  American  Telegraph  Company, 
having  lines  in  some  Southern  States  and  along  the  sea-coast.  Al)out 
the  3-ear  1858  the  Western  Union  had  reached  the  position  of  tele- 
graphic supremacy,  and  began  its  career  of  glorj',  power,  and  do- 
minion. 

Its  capital  was  then  $385,700.  During  the  following  eight  years 
it  declared,  upon  this  insignificant  capital-stock,  dividends  to  the 
amount  of  $17,810,460,  which,  with  the  issue  of  some  stock  for  other 
purposes,  raised  its  capital  in  1866  to  $22,013,700.  In  other  words, 
on  its  capital  of  $385,700  it  paid  during  these  years  an  annual  aver- 
age cash  and  stock  dividend  of  $2,745  922. 

With  this  enormous  profit  of  eight  years,  it  was  now  in  a  fair  con- 
dition to  swallow  its  only  great  rival,  the  American  Telegraph 
Company,  which  had  a  capital  of  $3,833,100.  This  it  paid  them, 
and  a  bonus  of  $8,000,000  of  stock  in  the  Western  Union  as  a  divi- 
dend. 

Then  another  small  company,  that  had  sprung  up  as  a  sort  of 
blackmail  competition  with  the  Western  Union,  and  which  had  con- 
structed a  few  thousand  miles  of  almost  worthless  lines,  had  to  be 
put  out  of  the  way.  The  Western  Union  paid  $7,216  300  for  these 
lines,  and  thus  became  then  the  exclusive  telegraph  company  in  the 
United  States,  having  raised  its  cai>ital  from  $385,700  in  1858  to 
$41,060,100  in  1870,  on  all  of  which  watered-stock  capital  the  people, 
who  are  compelled  to  use  the  wires,  have  to  pay  interest  at  the  high 
rates  asked  for  the  transmission  of  messages. 

Since  1870  the  telegraph  business  of  the  United  States  has  in- 
creased fully  one-half  more,  as  will  appear  from  the  following 
tables : — 


238 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


The  Telegraphs  of  the  United  States. 

The  mileage  ol  lines  and  wires,  number  of  offices,  and  traffic  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  for  each  year,  from  June  30, 1866,  to  June  30,  1879. 


1 

1 

II 

Tear. 

"S" 

1 

.a. 

a. 

1 

1^ 

1 

IS 

^= 

-'" 

,H 

iT 

s-  a. 

;.>  a. 

^iSS. 

•? 

fei 

fe; 

0? 

1^ 

^< 

^ 

^ 

^ 

Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

1866  . 

37,380 

75,686 

2,2.50 
2,565 

1867  . 

46,270 

85,291 

5,'87'9,282 

$6,5(58,92.5 
7,004,.560 

$3,944,006 
4,362,849 

$2,624,920 
2,641,711 

1868  . 

50.183 

97,.594 

3,219 

6,404,.595 

104.7 

63.4   41.3 

1869  . 

52,099 

104,584 

3,607 

7,934,933 

7,.316,918 

4,568,117 

2,748,801 

89.3 

54.7i  34.6 

1870  . 

54,109 

112,191 

3,972 

9,157,646 

7,138,7,38 

4,910,772 

2,227,966 

75.5 

51.2 

24.3 

1871  . 

56,0:32 

121,151 

4.606 

10,646,077 

7,637,449 

5,104,787 

2,532,662 

69.5 

45.7 

23.8 

1872  . 

62,0:!3 

137,190 

5,237 

12,444,499 

8,457,096 

5,666,863 

2,790,233 

66.2 

43.8 

22.4 

1873  . 

&5,757 

1.54,472 

5,740 

14,4.56,832 

9,.333,018 

6,575,056 

2,757,963 

62.5 

43.4 

19.1 

1874  . 

71,.5a5 

175,735 

6,188 

16,329,256 

9,262,657 

6.755,734 

2,506,920 

.54.9 

39.5 

15.4 

1875  . 

72,883 

179,496 

6,565 

17,153,710 

9,.564,.575 

6,335,415 

3,229,1.58 

54.0 

35.2 

18.8 

1876  . 

73,532 

183,832 

7.072 

18,72'.i,567 

10,0:54,980 

6,635,474 

3,.399,510 

50.9 

33.5 

17.4 

1877  . 

76,955 

194,323 

7.500 

21,158,941 

9,812,353 

6,672,225 

3,140,128 

43.6 

29.8 

13.8 

1878  . 

81,002 

200,202 

8,014 

23,918,894 

9,861,355 

6,309,813 

3,551,543 

38.9 

25.0 

13.9 

1879  . 

82,987 

211, .566 

8,534 

25,070,106 

10,960,640 

6,160,200 

4,800,440 

There  is  to  be  added  to  the  above  the  lines  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Telegraph  Company,  including  in  its  system  several  railway 
telegraph  connections  within  the  United  States,  as  follows,  January 
1,  1879:  — 

Miles  of  line 8,706 

Miles  of  wire 22,421 

No.  of  offices 223 

No.  of  messages 1,269,510 

Net  earnings 8265,566.74 

Besides  the  above,  there  are  many  new  lines  of  telegi'aph  which 
have  complied  with  the  Telegraph  Act  of  1866,  and  are  operating 
wires  with  or  without  connection  with  railway  companies.  The  fol- 
lowing embraces  a  few  only  of  these,  with  their  mileage :  — 


American  Rapid  Telegraph  Company,  New  York  to  Boston  .... 

American  Union  Telegraph  Company  of  Indiana 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  Telegraph  Company 1,304       3,367 

International  Ocean  Telegraph  Comi)any,  Xew  York  (inland  line)    .    .  502  574 

North- Western  Telegrapli  Company  of  Kenosha,  Wisconsin      .    .    . 


In  fact,  the  telegraph  business  in  the  United  States  has  immeasur- 
ably outstripped  that  of  an}'  other  country  in  the  world.     It  is  nearly 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS. 


239 


four  times  as  large  as  that  of  Austria-Hungary,  of  Germany,  and  of 
Great  Britain ;  nearly  three  times  as  large  as  that  of  France,  and 
neai'ly  twice  as  large  as  that  of  Russia.  The  following  table  gives 
the  exact  figures  for  1877  :  — 

Telegraphs  of  the  World  in  1877. 


Countries. 


Argentine  Republic  .  . 
Australia  and  I'olyuesia . 
Austria'-llungary     .    .    . 

Belgium 

Bolivia 

Brazil 

Canada,  Dominion  of  .    . 

Chili 

Colombia 

Costa  liira 

Denmarli 

Ei'uador 

Kg.vi't 

France      

Germany 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

Greec^e 

Guatemala 


182 

2,92-1 

613 

15 

89 

830 

55 

36 

16 

178 

10 

78 

4,J0fi 

5,10'.i 

5,375 


^  <>:  eo 


Countries. 


5,",30   India,  British 

'2-2,i).!;i    Iialv 

2S,lls   .Japan • 

3,l(ii)   >[exico 

475    Notlierlands 

3,51(1   Ncirway 

10,!m5   Persia 

2,6.)0   Peru 

1,227,  iPortus-al 

220:ii;oumania 

l,5'.tl,  Pu.ssia 

210   Spain 

;!,'.i,M)   Sweden 

33,S'.i5   swilzerland 

24,103   Turl^ey 

25,206  United  States  of  America 

9!)2  I  Uruguay 

1,226!  I 


225 

1,408 
1 
194 
335 
197 
46 
25 
144 
165 

1,6<)1 
264 
628 

1,053 
401 

8,829 


"^1   • 


15,705 

45,557 

1,840 

5,760 

2,166 

4,827 

2,458 

608 

2,190 

2,487 

57,338 

7,510 

6,094 

4,015 

17,618 

94,714 

1,300 


But  although  we  are  so  incomparabl}^  ahead  of  other  countries  in 
the  extension  of  our  telegraph  lines,  we  do  a  comparatively  small  tele- 
graph business  when  we  look  at  those  countries  where  the  telegraph 
has  been  put  under  government  control,  — England  and  Belgium,  for 
instance,  —  and  where  the  rates  of  messages  have  consequently  been 
lowered.  Thus,  while  we  ought  to  send  off  forty  million  messages 
per  annum  in  order  to  be  on  a  par  with  Belgium,  we  send  off  only 
ten  millions.  Unable  to  afford  such  high  rates  as  our  companies  ask, 
we  use  the  telegraph  only  for  the  most  important  matters,  and  when 
it  is  positively  unavoidable.  It  is  simply  despotism  in  this  manner 
to  levy  so  high  a  tax  upon  the  people  for  their  telegraph  business,  — 
a  despotism  which,  were  it  in  the  nature  of  a  direct  tax,  —  a  direct 
"extortion,  — would  at  once  cause  a  revolt. 

Now,  it  has  already  been  shown  that  the  postal  department  of  the 
United  States  is  a  vastly  cheaper  carrier  of  the  mails  than  any  private 
company  could  furnish.  No  express  company  would  transmit  the 
letters  and  papers  forwarded  through  the  United  States  post-office  at 
less  than  three  times  the  rates  now  charged ;  nor  should  it  be  forgot- 
ten that  the  economical  functions  of  a  national  government  can  attain 


240  LIBKIITY    AND    LAW. 

international  dimensions  utter!}'  beyond  the  reach  of  private  corpora- 
tions. This  has  been  most  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  establisliment 
of  the  postal  union,  before  alluded  to,  by  means  of  which  letters  can 
be  sent  from  any  one  of  the  twenty-odd  countries  composing  that 
union  to  any  other,  at  the  low  rate  of  five  cents  for  each  half-ounce,  — 
a  rate  three  times  lower  than  it  was  before  the  establishment  of  the 
iinion,  —  while  smaller  messages  can  be  sent  by  postal-card  at  a  cost 
of  only  two  cents.  Newspaper  and  other  mailable  packages  are  for- 
warded at  a- proportionately  low  charge.  Would  any  private  express 
company  undertake  the  transmission  of  mail-matter  at  such  prices, 
say  from  Missouri  to  New  Zealand  or  Japan  ?  Assuredly  not.  And 
the  whole  secret  lies  in  this:  that  these  private  corporations  must 
pay  interest  on  their  bonded  indebtedness,  and  are  anxious  to  declare 
heavy  dividends  for  the  benefit  of  their  stockholders. 

But  what  I  have  here  said  about  the  mail  applies  equally  to  the  tele- 
graphic communications.  That  also  can  be  operated  for  the  people 
vastly  cheaper,  safer,  and  speedier  by  the  government  than  by  private 
corporations  ;  and  for  the  same  simple  reason  :  that  the  government 
conducts  its  business  on  the  cooperative  principle,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  whole  people,  charging  no  more  for  its  services  than  will  pay  ex- 
penses.^ 

But  there  are  other  considerations  why  the  national  government 
should  assume  control  of  the  telegraph  business  of  the  republic. 
Firstly,  as  I  propose  the  establishment  of  a  State  and  national  police 
system,  it  will  become  absolutely  necessary  that  the  telegraphic  com- 
munications between  all  parts  of  the  republic  should  be  controlled 
exclusively  by  the  government,  for  the  protection  of  its  citizens 
against  fraud  and  violence,  and  for  the  arrest  of  all  guilty  parties. 

At  the  same  time,  since  the  State  itself  will  become  the  sole  maker 
of  money,  leaving  gold  and  silver,  in  their  natural  condition,  to  become 
mere  articles  of  commerce, — in  which  condition  they  will  soon  sink 
down  to  their  real  value,  —  the  post  and  the  telegraph  will  also  become 
the  means  of  regulating  exchanges  all  over  the  country.  This  will 
have  the  effect  of  making  exchange  nearly  par  all  over  the  United 


1  Practically,  this  has  already  been  shown  by  the  experience  of  England  and 
Belgium.  In  both  countries  the  telegraph  lines  have  been  put  under  govern- 
ment control,  and  the  result  has  been  that  messages  are  transmitted  now  at 
one-third  of  the  price  formerly  levied  by  private  corporations,  and  with  far 
greater  speed  and  promptitude. 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  241 

States;  the  slight  expense  which. may  occur  in  balancing  the  ex- 
changes, by  the  forwarding  of  actual  money,  going  into  the  general 
expense  account  of  this  department,  just  the  same  as  the  printing  of 
the  notes,  etc. 

Ultimately,  arrangements  may  also  be  made  with  foreign  govern- 
ments to  transfer  exchanges  in  this  manner,  by  post  or  telegraph, 
through  the  international  clearing-house. 

But  besides  the  use  government  will  make  of  the  telegraph  for  its 
money  and  police  affairs,  it  ought  to  have  control  over  it  for  the  use 
of  its  signal-service  bureau,  which  is  steadily  extending  its  operations 
and  observations  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  country.  Again, 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  government  should  exercise  that 
control  for  the  sake  of  its  military  operations  in  times  of  war  and 
public  disturbances.  This  is  indeed  so  evident,  that  it  only  needs  to 
be  stated  to  be  acknowledged. 

But  there  is  yet  another,  and  even  worse  feature  of  despotism  about 
this  telegraph  monopoly, that  absolutely  demands  the  interference  of 
the  government.  It  is  this:  Being  a  vehicle  of  news,  the  telegraph 
has  and  exercises  unchecked  control  over  the  press  and  over  the  pub- 
lication of  news  generally.  So  far  as  the  news  generally  is  concerned, 
it  permits  the  controllers  of  the  telegraph  to  speculate  on  all  the 
political  and  commercial  news  that  may  affect  the  prices,  —  to  with- 
hold, change,  or  even  fabricate  dispatches  that  may  involve  the  for- 
tunes of  thousands.  No  company,  no  set  of  men,  should  be  intrusted 
with  such  wide-reaching  power. 

So  far  as  the  newspapers  of  the  country  are  concerned,  they  are 
absolutel}'  at  the  mercy  of  this  monopoly'.  If  they  murmur  against 
it,  up  go  the  rates,  which,  to  the  newspaper,  is  the  same  as  "off  with 
its  head."  Insubordination  is  thus  punished  with  instant  death. 
And  as,  under  my  proposed  system  of  government,  a  daily  national 
newspaper  is  to  be  published,  this  is  a  further  reason  why  the  publi- 
cation and  transmission  of  news  should  not  be  left  to  selfish  private 
corporations. 

Sooner  or  later  this  monopoly  must  come  to  an  end,  and  we  might 
as  well  grapple  with  it  at  once.  It  is  the  prerogative  and  duty  of  the 
government  to  take  control  of  all  the  telegi-aph  lines  in  the  country, 
or  build  new  ones,  and  operate  them  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the 
people  at  large. 

16 


242  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


CHAPTER    in. 

PUBLIC   ROADS. 

The  division  of  our  country  everywhere  into  counties,  townships, 
sections,  etc.,  of  regular  figure, — rare  instances  excepted, — has 
itself  regulated  the  laying  out  of  highways  and  roads.  Every  road 
should  be  kept  in  constant  repair  and  cleanliness,  so  that  the  traffic 
of  commerce  along  the  roads  in  wagons  may  suffer  as  little  obstruc- 
tion as  possible  from  the  condition  of  the  soil,  and  that  the  health  of 
travellers  and  residents  along  the  road  may  not  be  impaired  by  clouds 
of  dust  or  the  evaporation  of  stagnant  mud-holes.  The  double  lines 
of  trees  along  each  side  of  the  road  will  materially  contribute  to  the 
health  and  comfort  of  travellers,  and  at  proper  intervals  fountains 
should  be  put  up  and  places  arranged  for  watering  horses  and  droves 
of  cattle.  Every  public  highwaj'  should  be  put  under  the  constant 
supervision  of  road-inspectors,  who  must  have  power  to  remedy  any 
defect  occurring  in  the  condition  of  the  roads,  from  any  cause  what- 
ever, without  the  least  delay ;  and  the  absurd  custom  of  leaving  the 
construction  and  repairing  of  roads  to  the  more  or  less  voluntary 
action  of  the  adjoining  landholders  must  be  abolished  in  every  State 
of  the  Union.  Under  this  wretched  S3'stem  the  adjoining  farmers, 
acting  under  the  influence  of  that  vis  inertice  which  is  the  bane  of 
human  nature,  leave  their  roads  for  years  in  the  same  miserable  con- 
dition, and  one  landlord  after  another  will  pass  over  a  rotten 
bridge,  or  drive  over  a  deep  gully,  at  the  risk  of  the  necks  of  all  who 
occupy  his  wagon,  and  of  that  wagon  itself  and  the  horses  that  draw 
it,  rather  than  spend  an  hour  in  remedying  the  nuisance.  He  will 
kill  off  horse  after  horse  rather  than  spend  a  little  money  to  make  a 
decent  dry  road  out  of  one  which,  throughout  the  year,  has  two  and 
three  feet  of  dry  or  wet  mud,  for  the  passage  of  his  heavy  grain- 
wagons.  Hence  the  necessity  of  such  government  inspectors.  They 
must  have  absolute  power  to  engage  paid  laborers.  The}"  must  order 
the  making  of  bridges,  durably  built,  and  of  a  construction  to  har- 
monize with  the  landscape,  wherever  they  shall  be  necessary,  and 
keep  them  in  constant  repair.  They  must  watch  and  protect  the 
trees  along  the  roads,  and  be  clothed  with  sufficient  police-power  to 
enforce  order  on  the  highway.     A  system  of  telegraphic  communi- 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  243 

cation  must  be  kept  up  among  these  inspectors,  so  that  the  passage 
of  any  drove  of  cattle,  etc.,  may  be  known  along  the  road  in  time  to 
provide  against  collisions,  and  for  other  contingencies. 


CHAPTER    rV. 

CANALS. 


Canals  are  artificial  water-highways,  the  possibility  of  the  Construc- 
tion of  which  depends  to  a  great  extent  upon  the  natural  river-system 
of  the  State.  Affording  far  cheaper  transportation  than  railroads, 
their  construction  should  be  encouraged  wherever  the  possibihty  is 
offered.  Besides,  they  afford  cheaper  and  speedier  transit  than  the 
common  roads.  (In  China,  nearl}^  all  transit  is  conducted  by  means 
of  canals  ;  the  boats,  how^ever,  being  built  with  cabins  so  constructed 
as  to  make  travel  on  them  a  luxury.)  They  serve,  moreover,  as 
natural  ventilators  in  purifying  the  atmosphere,  for  water-power,  for 
drainage  of  surface-water,  and,  in  some  measure,  to  irrigate  the 
adjoining  countr3\  Being  the  absolute  creation  of  the  government,  — 
unlike  the  rivers,  —  the  government  necessarily  keeps  exclusive  con- 
trol of  them,  and  allows  no  private  monopoh^  to  build  them.  How 
great  a  benefit  a  system  of  canals  is  to  the  people  of  a  State  is  shown 
by  the  Erie  Canal,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  both  directly  as  a  means 
of  transportation,  and  indirectl}^  as  furnishing  a  marvellous  water- 
power  for  mills,  manufactories,  etc.,  —  a  power  which  cannot,  in 
many  instances,  be  replaced  by  any  other.  In  still  greater  measure 
■would  their  benefit  appear  in  the  Southern  States,  where  the  winter 
weather  would  not  interfere  with  their  continuous  use ;  though, 
for  that  matter,-  when  frozen  over,  they  make  an  excellent  means 
of  transit  by  means  of  skates  and  sleighs,  as  is  shown  in  Holland. 
Besides,  as  the  population  of  our  country  increases,  and  the  de- 
mand for  cheap  food  grows  more  general,  they  might  be  stocked 
with  fish,  the  cheapest  and  one  of  the  healthiest  articles  of  diet ;  a 
fact  which,  I  am  glad  to  say,  has  of  late  years  also  been  recognized 
in  this  countr}',  and  led  to  the  stocking  of  many  of  our  rivers  with 
various  kinds  of  fish.  In  fact,  canals  serve  so  many  puri)oses,  that 
one  can  only  wonder  they  have  not  been  more  generallj'  introduced 
in  this  country. 


244  LIBERTY    AXD    LAW. 


CHAPTER    V. 

RIVERS    AND   LAKES. 

Rivers  and  lakes  constitute  natural  highways,  the  right  to  travel  on 
which  must  be  secured  to  every  citizen.  For  this  purpose  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  the  State  should  have  full  control  over  their 
navigation,  and  not  leave  the  travelling  public  at  the  mercy  of  those 
who  make  that  navigation  their  special  business.  No  vessel  should 
be  allowed,  therefore,  to  enter  on  this  business  unless  it  has  been 
inspected  as  to  its  condition  and  seaworthiness ;  and  such  inspection 
should  take  place  at  stated  regular  periods.  Special  rules  will  have 
to  be  drawn  up  for  all  steam-vessels,  so  as  to  secure  safety  and  health 
to  the  passengers  ;  the  proper  ventilation  of  all  berths  being  an  object 
especially  to  be  looked  to.  For  this  purpose  every  vessel  carrying- 
passengers  should  register  the  number  of  passengers  to  which  it  is  to 
be  limited,  and  the  inspectors  will  have  to  see  that  this  rule  is  not 
infringed  upon.  Vessels  for  the  cattle-trade  must  have  special 
arrangements  made  for  the  health  and  cleanliness  of  the  animals. 

Wherever  any  navigable  river  offers  obstructions  to  navigation,  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  remove  them,  if  at  all  practicable.  The 
old  notions  of  the  State  holding  aloof  from  internal  improvement* 
orio-inated  mainly  from  the  great  extent  of  our  country,  then  so- 
thinly  populated,  which  made  the  vast  expenses  of  such  improve- 
ments seem  too  burdensome.  Tluis,  what  was  merely  inexpedient  for 
the  time  being,  was  formulated  into  a  wrong  principle ;  and  now  that 
the  inexpediency  has  ceased,  the  error  in  the  principle  has  also  been 
laid  bare.  It  is  a  disgrace  to  human  reason  that  such  vast  arteries- 
of  commerce  as  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  should  continue  to 
obstruct  communication  and  endanger  the  safety  of  navigation,  when 
a  judicious  system  of  improvements  would  place  that  whole  body  of 
water  under  rational  control,  and  make  it  an  obedient  servant,  instead 
of  being,  as  now,  an  unruly  one :  full  of  snags,  sawyers,  sand-reefs, 
and  other  destructive  impediments.  The  same  holds  good  concern- 
ing all  navigable  rivers  and  lakes,  harbors,  gulfs,  bays,  seas,  and 
oceans,  whereof  surveys  should  designate  all  reefs,  rocks,  and  other 
dangers  to  navigation. 

It  is  by  virtue  of  making  these  improvements,  and  of  its  obligation 
to  secure  to  each  citizen  full  protection  against  the  oppressive  tyranny 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  245 

of  monopolies,  that  the  State  exercises  the  power  of  regulating  com- 
merce and  traffic  upon  rivers  and  lalies,  not  only  by  inspection  of,  and 
rules  concerning  the  construction  of  their  vessels,  etc.,  but  also  by 
€stablishing  such  laws  as  shall  prevent  the  levying  of  oppressive  tax- 
ation, in  the  shape  of  extravagant  rates  of  freight  and  passage.  For 
the  same  tendency  to  monopol}',  and  the  establishment  of  powerful 
and  unscrupulous  corporations,  which  has  directed  the  present  organ- 
ization of  our  railroad  s^'stem  has  manifested,  and  must  necessarily 
■continue  to  manifest  itself  in  our  S3'stem  of  river  and  lake  naviga- 
tion. Large,  wealthy  corporations  are  organized  to  build  lines  of 
steamers  between  certain  points,  and  by  buj'ing  up  any  threatened 
competing  line  that  may  be  proposed,  virtuallj-  control  the  whole  com- 
merce between  those  points,  levying  whatever  tax  the}'  please  upon 
commerce  and  the  travelling  public. 

These  rivers  and  lakes  being  natural  highways,  the  State  cannot 
assume  exclusive  control  of  the  traffic  and  travel  upon  them.  But 
the  State  is  bound  to  protect  its  citizens  against  the  oppressive  des- 
potism of  monopolies,  and  gains  further  authority  to  exercise  this 
protection  by  undertaking  the  improvement  of  these  rivers  and  lakes. 
******* 

It  is  true,  that  since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  this  work 
something  has  been  done  by  the  general  government  towards  such 
improvements  of  our  rivers  and  lakes,  but  not  near  enough ;  and  in 
one  instance  at  least,  on  an  utterly  wrong  basis.  The  rapids  at 
Keokuk  and  the  Upper  Mississippi  have  been  partially  removed ; 
dredge-boats  have  been  built  for  clearing  the  Missouri,  Mississippi, 
and  other  rivers  of  snags ;  and  a  regular  commission  —  working,  how- 
ever, on  an  absurdly'  small  appropriation  —  has  been  finall}-  estab- 
lished to  carry  on  these  improvements  permanentl}'. 

But  the  most  important  river  improvement  as  A^et  made  is  undoubt- 
edly the  magnificent  establishment  of  the  jett^y  s3-stem  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  by  Capt.  James  B.  Eads,  which  has  been  crowned 
with  remarkable  success. 

For  man}'  j'ears  the  great  importance  of  the  Mississippi  River  to 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as  affording  them  a  direct 
water-communication  with  the  Atlantic  coast  and  foreign  countries, 
has  sunk  into  insignificance  by  reason  of  the  mud  deposits  made  at 
the  mouth  of  its  entrance  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  so  that  New 
Orleans   had  almost  ceased  to  be  a  shipping  port  for  large  sea-going 


246  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

vessels,  ana  bad  become  altogether  inaccessible  as  a  port  of  immigra- 
tion for  vessels  from  Europe. 

When  Capt.  D.  B.  Hill,  some  foi'ty  years  ago,  proposed  the  general 
improvement  of  the  river  and  its  mouth,  his  contemporaries  ridiculed 
the  idea;  and  when  Capt.  Eads,  some  five  years  ago,  suggested  the 
removal  of  the  mud  deposits  at  the  mouth,  upon  the  principle  of  the 
jetty  sj'stem,  as  for  a  long  time  successfully  operated  at  the  mouths 
of  the  Danube,  the  gates  to  the  Black  Sea,  and  when  he  asked  govern- 
mental support  for  his  enterprise,  there  arose  a  wild  outcry  —  especially 
in  the  East  —  against  the  project,  as  involving  the  government  in  an 
unconstitutional  measure,  adverse  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions. 

In  former  times,  when  the  Democratic  party  and  the  Whig  party 
were  fighting  each  other  on  this  very  subject  of  internal  improve- 
ments, this  outcry  would  not  have  been  ineffective.  J5ut  the  doctrines 
advanced  in  "Liberty  and  Law"  had  already  made  themselves  felt, 
to  such  an  extent, that  Congress  was  in  a  manner  compelled  by  pubUc 
opinion  to  lend  government  aid  to  the  novel  enterprise  ;  and  as  a  con- 
sequence we  have  now  direct  water-communication  between  the  vast 
system  of  the  river  valleys  of  the  West  through  Eads's  gates  to  the 
Gnlf,  and  thence  to  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States,  and 
to  all  foreign  countries. 

But  that  which  I  condemn  in  the  action  of  Congress  in  this  matter 
is :  that  Congress  did  not  take  hold  of  the  jetty  project  itself,  but 
intrusted  it  to  an  individual,  or  rather  to  a  corporation,  allowing  that 
individual  or  corporation  to  bear  the  responsibility  of  the  execution 
as  well  as  to  reap  its  profits.  It  was  the  same  stupid  blunder,  or 
corrupt  villainy,  by  which  our  lands  and  franchises  had  been  squan- 
dered on  scheming  railroad-incorporators  and  thievish  members  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier  ring.  It  is  for  the  government  itself  to  carry  out 
such  enterprises,  on  the  cooperative  principles  of  a  federative  republic, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  to  secure  a  just  equality  of  rights. 

Besides,  that  jetty  system  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  is  of 
comparatively  little  moment,  so  long  as  the  whole  of  that  river  as 
well  as  the  Missouri, — and,  in  a  secondary  order,  the  Ohio,  Yellow- 
stone, Platte,  Osage,  Illinois,  White,  Cumberland,  Arkansas,  and 
Red  Rivei'S,  — from  the  highest  point  of  navigation  down  to  the  jetties, 
have  not  been  cleared  of  obstructions  to  navigation,  so  far  as  the  high- 
est skill  of  engineering  can  improve  them.  But  this  can  thoroughly 
be  done  only  by  the  national  government,  and  it  is  a  manifest  absurd- 


PUBLIC    IIKHIWAYS.  247 

ity  to' allow  an  individual  or  a  private  corporation  to  virtually  control 
this  whole  river-improvement  system,  and  reap  most  of  the  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  its  execution,  — besides  subsidizing  it,  — by  oper- 
ating the  jetties  at  the  entrance  of  all  those  rivers  through  the  Missis- 
sippi into  the  ocean. 

All  that  has  here  been  said  of  navigable  rivers  holds  good  also,  of 
course,  in  regard  to  navigable  lakes. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


RAILIlOiU)S. 


That  upon  which  the  life  of  man  hangg  as  on  a  thread  is  time.  All 
that  he  can  secure  of  it  for  his  own  use  and  enjoyment  is  in  that  pro- 
portion his  own  individual  and  free  life.  Hence  that  proportion  is 
his  real  wealth,  and  no  common-sounding  saying  is  more  stricth', 
philosophical!}'  true  than  the  adage  that  time  is  money.  Time  is  the 
only  money,  the  only  really  enjoj'able  mone}'-  and  wealth,  and  that 
which  we  commonly  call  money  and  wealth  is  only  the  representative 
of  so  much  enjoyable  time.  To  secure  it  to  the  majority  of  men  in 
greater  proportions  than  was  possible  in  the  past,  the  invention  of 
man  has  been  at  all  times  busy  to  gain  more  time  by  substituting 
machinery  for  labor,  and  for  the  quicker  transportation  of  persons 
and  property  fi-om  one  part  of  the  world  to  another.  The  railway 
system  of  communication  between  one  part  of  the  country  and  all 
others  has  thus  grown  to  be  of  transcendent  importance  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  human  race,  and  the  harmonious  and  fit  development  of 
all  the  faculties  of  the  minds  and  bodies  of  the  people. 

The  moneyed  powers  and  monopolies,  almost  immediately  after 
the  discovery  of  this  system  of  public  intercommunication,  perceived 
the  enormous  advantages  it  would  extend  to  any  bod}''  of  men  applv- 
ing  it  in  a  well-populated  Stute,  and  accordingly  prepared  to  possess 
themselves  of  it ;  the  State  lo(jking  passivel}-  on,  or  if  active  at  all  in 
the  matter,  applying  its  activity  in  the  very  worst  manner.  — that  is. 
by  extending  aid  gratuitously,  in  the  way  of  mono}',  credit,  lands,  etc.,. 
to  these  monopolies,  in  addition  to  the  enormous  privileges  conferred 
U[iou  them  by  their  governmental  charters  granlcd  b}'  the  Slates. 


248  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

The  reason  why  the  privileges  of  these  railway  monopolies  are  so 
enormous  is  this :  that  of  the  three  elements  which  enter  into  the 
realization  of  wealth  from  its  source,  the  soil,  —  wliich  are :  first, 
production  from  the  soil ;  second,  manufacture  of  tlie  productions 
for  consumption;  and,  third,  transportation  of  llie  manufactured  pro- 
ductions to  the  consumei'S,  — the  element  of  transportation  has  a 
double  ratio:  first,  transportation  from  the  producer  to  the  manu- 
facturer ;  and,  second,  from  tiie  manufacturer  to  the  consumer.  In 
addition  to  this  do+ihle  privilege,  which  enables  transportation  to 
make  profits  on  both  trips,  the  same  agency  which  transports  freight 
can,  in  the  case  of  railways,  be  made  serviceable  to  transport  pas- 
sengers. 

In  this  way  it  has  become  possible,  that  of  the  enormous  annual 
revenue  of  the  railroads  in  our  country,  which  is  now  estimated  at 
over  $400,000,000,  about  seventy  per  cent  is  used  for  the  expense  of 
operating  those  roads,  leaving  a  profit  of  about  thirty  per  cent,  or 
the  enormous  sum  of  $120,000,000  per  annum  on  the  invested  cap- 
ital. The  despotic  and  corruptive  power  derived  from  such  vast 
sums  of  money-income  is  surely  large  enough  to  require  all  the 
checks  and  regulations  that  legislation  can  invent,  if,  indeed,  it 
should  not  be  altogether  taken  away  from  private  corporations  and 
placed  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  State.  It  was  the  des- 
potic laying  on  of  taxes  by  the  kings  and  nobles  of  France,  sucking 
the  life-blood  out  of  the  people  by  their  waste,  extravagance,  and 
wars,  which  brought  on  that  terrific  revolution  we  still  shudder  to 
read  about;  and  the  people  of  our  own  country  cannot  long  consent 
to  leave  this  kind  of  power  in  the  hands  of  a  few  monopolies,  exercis- 
ing it  in  charging  undue  rates  on  freight  and  passage,  and  furnishing 
insufficient  accommodation,  and  accompanied  as  it  is  with  vexatious 
delays,  and  often  great  injuries  to  persons  and  property. 

Tliis  oppression  weighs  all  the  more  heavily  when  it  is  considered, 
tliat  most  of  these  railroads  were  built  with  the  money  of  others  than 
the  men  who  now  levy  those  taxes  of  freight  and  passage  upon  the 
people  ;  nay,  to  a  great  extent,  with  the  money  of  the  State  itself. 
Companies  have  been  organized  with  a  large  stock- account,  which 
never  was  paid  up,  while  roads  were  being  built  by  these  companies 
altogether  upon  a  system  of  mortgages.  In  other  words,  a  company 
of  men  organized  under  the  laws  of  the  State  to  do  a  certain  thing, 
without  subscribing  a  dollar  to  do  it,  and  then,  by  trumpeting  forth 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  249 

their  enterprise  to  the  world,  fell  to  mortgaging  it  in  proportion  as  the 
money  raised  by  these  mortgages  paid  for  the  building  of  the  road. 
If  the  first  mortgage  did  not  suffice  to  build  the  road,  as  it  seldom 
did,  second  and  third  mortgages  were  issued,  or  construction-bonds 
and  equipment-bonds.  If  sufficient  mortgages  could  not  be  sold  to 
the  people  in  a  private  way,  the  State  was  called  upon  to  make  the 
first  loans, — which  have  seldom,  in  that  case,  been  repaid, — or 
perhaps  even  to  donate  immense  tracts  of  land ;  while  every  town  and 
county  along  the  line  of  the  road  was  solicited  to  make  additional 
loans,  secured  by  stock  in  the  railroad  company,  which  became  value- 
less when  the  mortgages  were  forfeited  and  foreclosed. 

Thus  the  sixteen  hundred  and  thirty-seven  miles  of  the  two  Pacific 
Railroads  were  built  with  a  government  subsidy  of  $30,000  a  mile,  a 
mortgage  indebtedness  of  $30,000  a  mile,  ever  so  many  State,  county, 
and  city  loans,  and  a  great  land-grant  of  twelve  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred acres  per  mile  along  the  line  of  the  roads ;  and  yet  these  roads 
are  owned  and  controlled  by  the  shareholders  of  the  $200,000,000  of 
stock  that  have  been  issued  besides  those  mortgages,  but  Avere  never 
paid  up,  and  were  distributed,  in  the  main,  on  the  Credit  Mobilier 
83'stem. 

It  is  these  shareholders  —  who  never  built  the  road,  who  simpl}^  took 
other  people's  money,  and  making  enormous  profits  out  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  road,  helped  themselves,  moreover,  to  as  much  so- 
called  stock  as  they  pleased  —  that  levy  annually,  through  the  various 
railroads  of  the  country,  an  enormous  tax  of  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  on  the  traffic  of  those  roads,  besides  continuing  to  enjoy  the 
income  of  these  vast  grants  of  land  that  have  made  —  to  mention 
onl}''  one  instance  —  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  the  possessor  of 
nearly  fifty  million  acres  of  land  ;  five  hundred  and  fifty  times  more 
than  belong  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  the  greatest  laud-owner  in 
Great  Britain. 

Furthermore,  these  shareholders  are  in  most  instances  not  those 
who  projected  the  original  enterprise.  The  original  shares,  having 
been  made  marketable  by  their  possessors,  became  immediately  a 
common  article  of  barter,  —  owned  to-day  by  this  and  to-morrow  by 
that  clique  of  selfish  speculators.  The  temporary  owners  of  the 
majority  of  the  shares  have  no  permanent  interest  in  the  road  itself, 
and  their  only  temporary  interest  is  to  make  as  much  as  possible  out 
of  speculation  in  the  shares. 


250  ,  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

This  leads,  of  couvse,  to  general  neglect  of  the  road,  resulting  in 
danger  to  the  passengers,  and  causing  those  frightful  railroad-disas- 
ters, that  have  been  and  continue  to  be  the  disgrace  of  our  country, 
suggesting  and  rendering  necessary  the  establishment  of  those  acci- 
dent-insurance companies,  wherein  every  traveller  on  a  railroad  nowa- 
days deems  it  his  duty  to  invest  for  the  benefit  of  his  heirs  before 
entering  a  car.  It  furthermore  is  productive  of  raising  the  rates  of 
freight  and  passage  far  beyond  the  requirements  of  a  fair  percentage 
of  profit  on  the  actual  original  cost  of  the  road. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course,  that  every  enterprise  should,  after  the 
payment  of  all  operating  expenses,  throw  off  a  surplus  sufficient  to 
pay  a  fair  interest  on  the  capital  invested,  besides  a  legitimate  per- 
centage for  the  risk  run  in  investing  it.  But  the  managers  of  the 
railroad  enterprises  discovered,  soon  after  their  first  opening,  that,  • 
being  in  a  position  to  dictate  their  own  terms  to  the  public,  they 
could  make  far  greater  profits  than  were  required  by  a  fair  remunera- 
tion for  capital  and  risks.  They  declared  dividends  so  large,  that 
they  astonished  the  community,  who  had  to  pay  these  dividends  in 
the  way  of  freight  and  passage  rates. 

Naturally,  the  law-givers  set  about  to  reduce  these  extortions,  and 
in  a  manner  thereby  to  regulate  freight  and  passage  rates,  by  passing 
laws  forbidding  the  monopolies  to  declare  larger  dividends  than  would 
constitute  a  very  liberal  remuneration, — say  ten  per  cent.  But  the 
monopolies  were  more  cunning  than  tlie  law-givers,  and  the  next  time 
their  coffers  were  overrunning  from  an  excess  over  the  ten  per  cent, 
took  the  overrun  surplus  and  divided  it  among  their  shareholders  in 
the  shape  of  an  addition  to  the  capital  stock. 

Thus  was  inaugurated  that  famous  s^'stem  of  stock-watering,  which 
has  been  of  late  carried  to  such  great  perfection  in  our  country ;  and 
on  every  dollar  of  such  watered  stock  the  public  must  continue  to  pay 
additional  taxes  in  the  shape  of  freight  and  passage  rates.  It  appears 
by  this,  immediately,  what  extraordinarily  despotic  power  these  monop- 
olies possess,  and  how  utterly  they  disregard,  by  cunning  manoeuvres, 
legislative  enactments,  — though  even  these  they  have  now  grown  bold 
enough  to  disregard,  supremely  controlling  them  by  purchasing  the 
law-makers  beforehand.  The  Erie  Railroad  alone  boasted,  in  the 
time  of  the  Fisk-Gould  rule,  of  spending  $1,000,000  per  annum  in 
four  different  States  for  the  pm-pose  of  buying  the  votes  of  men 
who  would  protect  its  road  in  the  legislature  against  offensive  enact- 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  251 

ments,  and  of  being  able  to  control  at  any  time  twenty-live  tliousancl 
votes.  And  yet  tlie  Erie  controlled  only  seven  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  of  railway. 

•To  what  extent  this  '' stock- watering  "  has  been  carried,  and  con- 
sequently to  what  extent  taxes  are  daily  levied  upon  every  passenger 
and  shipper  on  the  railroad,  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
figures :  — 

The  Erie  Railroad  in  1862  had  a  total  capital  of  bonds  and  debt 
amounting  to  $40,285,365.  It  increased  it,  within  about  ten  years, 
to  about  $70,000,000. 

The  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroads  in  1862  had  a 
total  capital  of  $67,575,039.  It  was  increased  to  $104,661,216 
within  less  than  ten  years. 

The  Pennsylvania  Central  Railroad  in  1862  had  a  total  capital  of 
$13,724,100.  It  has  been  increased  to  over  $40,000,000  within  a 
decade. 

These  are  only  three  roads,  but  they  represent  the  three  gi'eatest 
enterprises  that  control  the  railway  commerce  of  our  country.  In 
the  case  of  the  Pennsylvania  Central,  the  control  extends  over  more 
than  seven  hundred  miles  of  railway  ;  in  the  case  of  the  Erie  Rail- 
road, over  seven  hundred  and  seventy-three  miles  of  railway ;  and  in 
the  case  of  the  New  York  Central,  — combined  as  it  is  now  under  one 
management  with  the  Hudson  River  and  Harlem  Railways,  and,  with 
control  of  the  Lake  Shore  Road,  uniting  the  great  commercial  metrop- 
olis of  the  North-West,  Chicago,  with  the  commercial  metropolis  of 
the  country.  New  York,  —  over  some  two  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  of  railroad,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  $215,000,000, 
and  an  annual  income  of  $45,000,000.  Let  it  be  remembered  that 
this  enormous  power  is  now^  virtually  wielded  by  one  man:  the  same 
man,  moreover,  who  has  already  control  of  the  whole  telegraph 
system  of  the  United  States,  the  Western  Union,  with  a  capital  of 
some  $43,000,000,  and  an  annual  income  of  probably  about 
$3,000,000,  and  with' an  unlimited  control  of  sixty-odd  thousand 
miles  of  telegraphic  communication.  This  one  man  has,  therefore, 
absolute  control  over  all  telegraphic  communication  between  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  and  the  most  important  part  of  their 
commercial  railway  communication.  He  can  raise  the  prices  of 
that  communication  —  that  is  to  say,  can  levy  taxes  upon  the 
people  who   must   make  use  of   his  railroad  and   his  telegraph  —  to 


252  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

what  extent  he  chooses ;  there  is  no  redi'ess  at  hand.  If  the  legis- 
lature attemi)ts  to  fix  the  minimum  fare  on  his  roads,  he  can  arrange 
his  trains  for  passengers  so  that  there  shall  be  only  one  car,  or 
perhaps  two  cars,  on  each  train,  ill-constructed,  filthy,  badly  ven- 
tilated, and  generally  uncomfortable,  to  such  a  degree,  that  all  the 
passengers  feel  compelled  to  enter  the  drawing-room  cars  that  are 
attached  to  the  same  train,  though  they  have  to  pay  nearly  fifty  per 
cent  additional  to  the  legal  fare.  This  same  gentleman  has  now 
bought  up  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  and  thereby  extended  his 
power  over  some  sixteen  hundred  miles  more  of  road.  Necessarily 
the  same  system  will  follow,  —  the  same  stock- watering,  and  the  same 
increase  in  the  rates.  The  passengers  and  shippers  of  the  New  York 
Central  Railroad,  that  in  1862  had  to  pay  rates  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  dividends  on  a  capital  of  only  $15,000,000,  had  ten  years 
later  to  pay  rates  to  meet  the  requirements  of  dividends  on  a  capital 
of  $104,661,316;  that  is  to  say,  the  rates  which  they  are  made  to 
pay  ought  to  be  only  one-half  of  what  they  are. 

No  government  would  dare  to  oppress  the  people  in  the  manner  that 
this  one  monopol}^  does.  The  end  is  inevital)le.  Every  railroad  in 
the  land  must  be  appropriated  by  and  put  under  the  control  of  the 
government.  The  farmers  of  the  West  have  already  spoken  with 
unmistakable  tones  in  three  State  elections ;  it  vvill  not  be  long  before 
the  whole  nation  will  take  up  the  same  cr3\ 

It  was  once  thought  that  competition  would  reduce  the  extortions 
of  the  railroad  monopolies  to  a  just  rate,  and  that  thus  prices  would 
regulate  themselves,  as  from  sheer  inborn  inertness  men  like  to  im- 
agine. But,  far  from  being  so  regulated,  it  soon  became  apparent 
that  the  railroad  monopolies  were  governed  by  cunning  and  selfish 
men,  wise  enough  to  take  advantage  of  the  indifference  and  inertness 
of  their  fellow-citizens.  This  they  achieved  by  simply  combining,  or 
"  pooling,"  —  to  use  the  slang  phrase,  — the  competing  lines. 

The  origin  and  development  of  this  "  pooling  "  scheme  is  somewhat 
singular,  and  may  deserve  or  require  a  short  notice. 

In  the  3'ear  1857,  Albert  Fink,  a  German  engineer  of  great  ability, 
entered  the  service  of  the  Louisville  and  Nashville  Railroad,  having 
previously  been  seven  years  in  the  emplo}'  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad,  under  the  celebrated  engineer,  Benjamin  H.  Latrobe,  the 
first  engineer  who  made  use  of  iron  in  the  construction  of  bridges. 
Fink  remained  with  the  Louisville  and  Nashville  Railroad  from  1857 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  253 

to  1875,  rebuilding  the  bridges  of  the  road  as  soon  as  they  were 
destroyed  by  the  armies  of  the  civil  war,  and  so  distinguishing  him- 
self, both  as  engineer  and  practical  railroad-man,  that  as  early  as 
1865  he  was  appointed  chief  manager  and  superintendent  of  the  road. 

As,  in  the  course  of  time,  money  matters  became  more  stringent^ 
and  economy,  therefore,  more  necessary,  even  in  railroad  affairs, 
Fink  bethought  himself,  that  the  main  source  of  the  ebb  in  the 
revenues  of  the  railroads  must  lie  in  the  conTi)etitive  system,  which 
forced  the  railroads  to  lower  their  rates  to  ruinous  prices.  The 
remedy  lay  close  at  hand.  If,  instead  of  competing,  he  could  bring 
railroads  to  "pooling,"  the  whole  difticulty  was  solved,  —  at  any 
rate,  so  far  as  the  railroad  corporations  were  concerned.  The  people 
might  suffer  from  an.  increase  of  charges,  but  the  railroads  would 
greatly  increase  their  profits.  With  this  object  in  view  he  organized 
the  "Southern  Railroad  and  Steamboat  Association,"  the  first  great 
"pool"  established  in  the  United  States. 

Tired  of  a  life  of  incessant  labor,  he,  in  1877,  was  about  to  take  a 
pleasure  excursion  to  his  old  home  in  Germany,  when  in  New  York 
he  was  met  by  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  of  the  New  York  Central ;  Mr.  Jewett, 
of  the  Erie  ;  Mr.  Thomas  Scott,  of  the  Pennsjdvania  Central ;  and 
Mr.  Garrett,  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  all  of  whom  urged  him 
to  organize  for  their  (Eastern)  roads,  as  he  had  so  successfully 
organized  for  the  Southern  roads.  The  result  was  the  railway 
syndicate,  that  now  has  virtually  taken  from  the  people  of  the 
United  States  the  right  to  regulate  commerce  between  the  several 
States. 

Of  course,  it  was  an  expensive  measure  for  the  established  lines, 
but  better  than  ruin,  — more  especiall}-  as  the  people  had  to  pay  the 
expense  by  increased  rates.  If  any  new  competing  road  was  planned 
and  undertaken,  how  quickly  the  road  thereby  endangered  would  bu}' 
it  up,  levying  the  payment  of  the  purchase-money  upon  the  travelling 
and  commercial  public !  That  it  is  still  worse  for  the  public  if  the 
State  itself  undertakes  to  establish  this  competition,  the  railroad  his- 
tory of  Massachusetts  demonstrates  in  the  most  vivid  manner  in  the 
cases  of  the  Boston,  Hartford,  and  Erie  Railroad,  and  of  the  Hoosac 
Tunnel.  The  State  cannot  compete  with  monopolies  grown  so  pow- 
erful as  the  railroads ;  it  must  extinguish  them,  by  compelling  their 
transfer  to  the  State.  Self-preservation  demands  it,  and  justice  will 
sanction  it ;  for  nearly  all  of  the  great  roads  have  been  built  by  the 


254  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

lands  and  monej^s  furnished  by  the  State  or  the  people,  and  public 
policy  requires  that  the  government  should  control  and  direct  their 
operations. 

Indeed,  the  extravagant  land-grants  extended  to  many  of  these 
railroad  monopolies  furnish  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  control  of  those 
roads  by  the  government,  and  the  necessit3'  for  it  is  continually 
increasing.  To  realize  this  fully,  it  should  be  known, that  of  the  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five  milUon  acres  of  land  consti- 
tuting the  United  States  and  Territories,  nearly  one-fourth  is  owned 
by  railroad  monopolies,  —  an  extent  of  territory  larger  than  France, 
Spain,  Italy,  and  Great  Britain  together,  — while  the  general  reserva- 
tion for  schools  to  educate  ten  million  scholars  was  only  one-thirty- 
sixth  part  of  the  public  lands.  All  these  lands  have  been  given  away 
to  build  railroads,  that  by  building  at  double  cost,  —  making  the 
average  mile  cost  from  $60,000  to  $80,000,  instead  of  from  $30,000 
to  $50,000  per  mile,  which  is  the  fair  legitimate  price,  —  levy  for  all 
future  time  upon  the  traffic  of  the  roads  taxes  to  pay  the  interest  on 
the  additional  $30,000  per  mile,  and  interest  besides  on  the  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars  of  stock  that  have  been  issued  as  a  farther  fraud. 
That  is  to  say,  the  men  who  proposed  to  build  the  road  in  a  fair 
wa}',  which  would  have  averaged  a  cost  of  about  $30,000  to  $50,000 
a  mile,  organized  themselves  into  another  compan}^  —  Credit  Mobi- 
lier,  or  Construction  Company,  or  whatever  the  chosen  name  might 
be,  — and  now  built  the  road  at  an  exorbitant  rate  of,  say,  $60,000  to 
$80,000  per  mile,  dividing  the  immense  profit  of  this  construction- 
account  among  themselves  and  their  friends,  besides  dividing  in  a 
simitar  manner  the  fictitious  stock  which  they  had  caused  to  be 
issued. 

By  those  land-grants  the  lands  belonging  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  been  given  away  in  such  vast  proportions,  that  one 
of  the  largest  beneficiaries,  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  in  its  circu- 
lar put  forth  to  induce  European  capitalists  to  advance  money  for  the 
construction  of  the  road,  had  the  boldness  therein  to  state:  "These 
lands,"  — the  forty-seven  million  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
acres  of  the  Northern  Pacific  land-grant,  —  "  when  the  road  shall  be 
built  and  the  business  fairly  started,  excluding  town  and  station  sites, 
would  certainly  avei*age  $10  per  acre,  making  the  sum  of  $473,600,000, 
Supposing  the  construction  of  the  road  should  cost  $60,000  per  mile, 
the  entire  cost  at  this  rate  would  be  $120,000,000,  leaving  to  the 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  255 

shareholders  an  excess  of  clear  profit  from  the  lands  alone  of  $353,- 
600,000." 

Tiiat  is  to  sa3%  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  had  given  to  this 
one  corporation  $353, GOO, 000  of  estimated  profit  for  building  a  road 
which  that  corporation  did  not  advance  a  single  dollar  to  build,  bor- 
rowing all  the  money  required,  in  advance,  on  the  lands  thus  stolen 
from  the  people.  That  corporation  took  no  risk,  a  guaranteed  profit 
by  its  own  confession  of  $353,600,000,  the  vast  profits  made  in  build- 
ing the  road  at  an  estimated  cost  of  $60,000  per  mile,  when  it  ought 
to  be  about  $30,000,  and  now  holds  its  immense  power  in  perpetual 
danger  to,  and  oppression  of  the  people.  That  the  people  are  the 
equitable  owners  of  the  road,  having  paid  for  it  in  full,  and  $353,- 
600,000  profit  to  the  corporation  besides,  is  clear;  and  3'et  they  have 
no  share  in  the  ownership,  and  are  charged  exorbitant  rates  of  freight 
and  passage, — that  is  to  say,  are  taxed  to  whatever  enormous 
amount  the  payment  of  interest  on  the  mortgages,  of  dividends  on 
unpaid  stock,  and  of  other  fraudulent  Credit  Mobilier  charges,  shall 
render  it  advisable  and  profitable  to  the  company  to  make. 

Thus  Congress  has  given  away  about  one-fourth  of  its  public  lands 
to  two  gigantic  corporations,  composed  of  perhaps  one  hundred 
stockholders,  conferring  upon  them  rights  and  privileges  the  richest 
dukes  and  princes  of  Europe  might  be  proud  of ;  and  yet  it  has 
assigned  but  one-thirty-sixth  part  of  those  lands  to  the  ten  million 
chiMren  who  now  demand  education,  and  whose  number  will  soon 
reach  twenty  or  forty  millions  of  souls.  Can  any  one  doubt,  in  view 
of  these  facts,  that  the  most  vital  interests  of  the  people  have  been 
betrayed  by  Congress  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  raih-oad  kings, 
whose  patents  of  sovereignty  are  contained  in  those  acts  of  our  Con- 
gressional Parliament  granting  the  vast  domains  of  the  people  to 
monopolizing  despotisms,  whose  powers  for  illegal  taxation  will  p^-o- 
duce  extortions  that  have  been  rivalled  only  in  the  Roman  provinces 
in  the  most  corrupt  days  of  the  Roman  Republic? 

Another  danger  resulting  fromtliis  insane  alienation  of  the  people's 
rich  domains  is  this:  The  population  of  the  United  States  is  now 
somewhat  over  fort}^  millions,  some  twelve  millions  of  which  are 
agriculturists.  There  are  left  to  the  United  States,  of  its  one  billion 
eight  hundred  and  thirty-four  million  nine  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
thousand  four  hundred  acres,  —  some  three  hundred  and  seventy 
miUion  of  which  are  in  Alaska,  —  only  in  the  neighborhood  of  eight 


25!i 


LIBERTY    AND    LAAV. 


linndred  million  acres  of  land  for  our  future  agricultural  population, 
which  is  -weekly  increasing,  especiallj^  by  immigration  from  Europe, 
that  just  now  is  assuming  more  colossal  proportions  than  it  ever  had 
before.  When  will  this  be  exhausted?  Estimating  every  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  as  capable  of  supporting  five  persons,  the  eight  hundred 
million  acres  will  be  absorbed  when  our  agricultural  population  shall 
have  been  increased  from  twelve  to  sixty  millions ;  that  is  to  say, 
when  our  whole  population  shall  have  risen  to  about  one  hundred 
•  and  twenty  millions,  which  is  certainly  no  very  remote  future,  being 
likely  to  occur,  according  to  calculations  based  on  the  progress  of  the 
past,  before  half  a  century.  This  matter  gains  all  the  more  impor- 
tance from  the  fact  that  the  productiveness  of  our  lands  is  decreas- 
ing to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  —  what  seems  now  an  impossibil- 
ity—  seasons  of  famine  in  the  United  States  quite  likely  to  occur  by 
that  time,  unless,  indeed,  our  agriculturists  engage  the  aid  of  science 
in  their  behalf,  and  by  the  establishment  of  such  agricultural  schools 
as  I  have  proposed,  learn  to  make  the  soil  yield  artificially  the  same 
as  it  yielded  when'it  was  first  opened  by  man. 

It  is  only  by  experience  that  the  danger  from  monopolies  shows 
itself.  In  the  infancy  of  the  railroad  system  in  the  United  States  no 
trouble  was  apprehended  from  it,  but  now  that  the  system  has  grown 
to  extend  from  two  thousand  miles  in  1840  to  about  sixty-seven 
thousand  one  hundred  and  four  miles  in  1873,  —  as  great  a  length 
for  our  forty  millions  of  people  as  Europe  has  for  her  three  hundred 
millions,  —  and  when  thirty-five  thousand  miles  more  are  now  in  course 
of  construction,  the  danger  has  grown  so  imminent  that  it  were  suicide 
on  the  part  of  our  republic  to  tolerate  its  uncontrolled  domination 
any  longer. 

This  growth  is  very  fully  shown  by  the  following  tables:  — 


Comparative  Statistics  of  American  Eailways  — 1871-1878. 

^ 

Capital 
and 
Funded 
Debt. 

Eaj-Jiings. 

S 

Year. 

Gros.<i. 

Net. 

From 
Freight. 

From 
Passengers. 

f 

1871  .     . 

1872 .  . 

1873 .  . 

1874  .     . 

1875  .     . 
1876 .     . 
1877  .     . 
1878 .     . 

44,614 
57,52.? 
r)(;,2:'.7 

60,27:5 
71,759 
73,508 
74,112 
78,960 

$2,664,627,645 
3,159,423,057 
3,7.^,543,034 
4.221, 763,.')94 
4,415,631, (;;!() 
4,46.S,.591,935 
4,568,.">97,248 
4,589,948,7931 

.^03,329,208 
465,241,0.15 
526,419,9,35 
.520,4(;6,(116 
.50.!,(li;.''),5()5 
497,257,959 
472,909,272 
490,103,3511 

$141,746,404   $294,430,322 
165,754,373     340,931,785 
183,810,5(i2      389,035,508 
189,570,958     379,466,935 
18."i,.")0(;.438     363,960,234 
18(!,4.-)2,7.52     361,1.37,376 
170,970,697,    342,.S,59,222 
187,575,167;    3(>5,466,061 

$108,898,886 
132,309,270 
137,384,427 
140,999,081 
139,105,271 
1.36,120,.5.83 
130,050,050 
124,637,290 

$50,456,681 
64,418,1.57 
67,120,709 
67,042,943 
74,294,208 
68,039,668 
58,.5(;6,313 
53,629,363 

PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS. 


257 


Statement  showing  the  Nmnher  of  Miles  of  Bailroad  Constructed  each  Year  in 
the  United  States,  from  1830  to  the  close  of  1878. 

[From  Poor's  Railroad  Manual  for  1879.] 


Year. 

8 

II 

Year. 

S 

r 

1830 

1831 

23 

95 
229 
380 
633 
1,098 
1,273 
1,497 
1,913 
2,302 
2,818 
3,536 
4,026 
4,185 
4,377 
4,633 
4,930 
5,598 
5,906 
7,365 
9,021 



72 

134, 

151 

253 1 

465 

1751 

224 

416, 

389 

516 

717 

491 

159 

192 

256 

297 

6681 

398 

1,369 

1,656 

1,961 

1,926 

2,452 

1,3(!0 

1855 

185(; 

18,374 
22,016 
24,503 
26,968 
28,789 
30,635 
31,286 
32,120 

1,654 
3,647 
2  647 

1832 

1857 

1833 

1858 

2,465 

1,821 

1,846 

651 

1834 

1859 

1860 

1861 

1862 

1835 

1830 

1837 

1838 

1863 

33,170   1  O.'ift 

1839 

1864 

33,908 

738 

1840 

1865 

35,085 
36,801 
39,250 

1,177 

1  716; 

1841 

186(> 

184-2 

1867 

2,44i> 

1843 

1844 

1868 

1869 

42,229 
46,844 
52,9]  4 
60,522 
66,242 
70,311 
72,616 
74;<574 
77,031 
79,208 
81s841 

2,979 
4  615 

1845 

1870 

6,070 
7,608 

1846 

1871 

1847 

1872 

5,720 

1848 

1840 

1873 

1874 

4,069 
2,305 

1850 

1875 

1,758 
2,657 
2,177 

1851 

1852 

10,982 
12,908 
15,360 
16,720 

1876 

1877 

1853 

1854 

1878 

2,694 

Mileage,   Capital,   Cost,   and  Revenue  of  the  Railroads  of  the   United   States 

for  1878. 

Cost  of  railroads  and  equipments $4,166,331,921 

Gross  earnings 490,103,351 

Working   expenses 302,528,184 

Net  earnings 187,575,167 

Interest  paid  on  bonds 103,160,512 

Dividends  paid  on  stock 53,629,368 

In  Belgium  the  government  has  ah-eady  secured  itself  against  this 
danger  by  obtaining  control  of  all  the  railroads  in  the  country.  In 
France  this  policy  has  also  been  followed,  though  only  in  a  partial  way. 
In  Germany  and  England  the  proposition  to  have  the  government 
obtain  control  of  all  the  railroads  is  growing  daily  into  more  favor. 
In  our  own  countiy,  —  which  is  threatened  so  much  more  by  these 
monopolies  than  the  kingdoms  and  empires  of  Europe,  owing  to  the 
immensely  more  extensive  development  of  our  railway  system,  — the 
farmers  and  shippers  of  the  West  are  just  beginning  to  rise  in  oppo- 

17 


258  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

sition  to  an  intolerable  tyrannj'^ ;  and  yet  so  extensive  is  tlie  power 
of  these  railroad  monopolies,  that  scarcely  any  of  the  leading  news- 
papers of    the   country  —  generally    so   apt   to   espouse  a   popular 

cause -have  dared  to  lend  their  support  to  this  most  important  and 

significant  movement. 

For  all  these  reasons,  as  well  because  it  is  the  duty  of  the  govern- 
ment to  control  all  public  highways,  and  afford  to  each  citizen  the 
speediest  access  to  all  others,  as  because  the  government  can  build 
roads  cheaper  than  any  private  company,  having  larger  credit  and 
greater  means,  and  can  operate  them  more  economically,  as  is  shown 
by  the  United  States  management  of  the  post-offlce,  I  propose  that 
the  government  should  take  control  of  the  railway  system  of  the  whole 
country  and  manage  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people,  as  has  been 
done  in  Belgium  with  such  marked  success.  The  time  has  gone  by  for 
keeping  the  limits  of  government  within  the  sphere  of  merely  protect- 
ing the  liberties  of  the  people  against  direct  violence  ;  for  indirect  fraud 
and  extortions  have  assumed  proportions  that  threaten  to  swallow  up 
all  liberties.  When  corporations  can  grow  so  powerful  that  they  may 
with  impunity  —  as  the  Erie  Road  does,  and  as  the  New  York  Central 
and  almost  all  others  railroads  do,  though  in  a  less  open  way —  plun- 
der and  oppress  the  unprotected  public,  bribe  the  law-makers  of  the 
State,  make  war  upon  each  other,  absorb  permanently,  by  greater 
salaries  than  the  State  will  afford  to  pay,  the  most  eminent  legal 
talent,  and  by  their  indirect  influence  as  well  as  by  direct  corruption 
o-ain  over  the  power  of  the  courts,  no  government  that  values  its 
existence  can  look  on  with  indifference.  Neither  the  Erie  clique 
alone  nor  the  Tammany  clique  alone  could  have  perpetrated  their 
buo-e  frauds  successfully  ;  it  was  the  combination  of  both,  supported, 
moreover,  by  all  the  other  great  monopolies  and  corporations  that 
depended  equally  upon  a  rule  of  fraud-  and  violence,  which  made 
possible  the  disgraceful  scenes  of  our  times. 

To  tamper  with  these  railroad  companies  by  reorganizing  them  as 
legally  existing  monopolies,  and  regulating  their  charges,  mode  of 
doing  business,  etc.,  —  in  short,  to  make  a  special  contract  with  each 
company,  —  may  allay  some  of  the  worst  features  of  our  present 
system;  but  it  is  no  radical  cure,  and,  moreover,  nourishes  other 
evils,  —  such  as  bribery  of  the  legislative  bodies.  Special  legislation 
is  always  a  danger,  and,  besides,  is  calculated  to  deceive  the  public, 
by  a  gi<asi-legislative  indorsement  of  the  enterprises  it  charters. 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  259 

What  we  need  is,  that  the  State  should  assume  possession  and 
control  of  all  the  railroads,  and  run  them  at  the  lowest  possible 
rate  compatible  with  a  fair  interest  and  dividend,  in  the  interest  of 
the  people  alone,  and  pay  the  present  owners  a  just  compensation. 
All  tliat  has  been  said  of  tlw)  steam -rail  ways  in  this  chapter  applies 
equally  to  the  horse-railways,  etc.,  that  afford  communication  to  the 
inhabitants  of  large  cities.  They  should  all  be  under  the  direct  con- 
trol of  the  respective  municipal  corporations. 

This  change  in  the  administration  of  the  railways  should  be  accom- 
panied by  a  radical  change  in  their  management.  Every  steam-rail- 
way should  have  a  double  track,  and  the  most  complete  system  of 
signals,  etc.,  that  human  ingenuity  can  devise,  to  prevent  collisions. 
No  car  should  be  heated  in  any  other  way  than  by  hot-water  pipes, 
nor  lighted  with  combustible  oils  ;  and  a  complete  S3^stem  of  ventila- 
tion should  be  arranged  for  every  passenger-car,  and  for  all  cars  used 
for  the  transportation  of  animals.  Every  car  should  be  arranged  for 
a  fixed  number  of  passengers,  and  no  overcrowding  should  be  allowed. 
The  cars  for  the  transportation  of  animals  should  also  be  limited  to  a 
definite  number  of  the  various  classes  of  animals,  and  be  so  con- 
structed as  to  allow  them  a  sufficiency  of  air,  wj^er  and  food.  At  the 
same  time,  the  road-beds  should  be  so  made,  and  the  machinery  of 
the  locomotives,  as  well  as  the  construction  of  the  cars,  so  devised, 
under  the  guidance  of  science,  as  to  insure  the  speediest  as  well  as 
safest  transmission  of  persons  and  propertj'. 

But  there  is  still  another  reason  wh}^  the  whole  railroad  system  of 
the  counti'y  should  be  put  under  governmental  control.  By  the  crash 
of  1873,  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Texas  Pacific,  and  a  large  number 
of  minor  railroads  have  been  thrown  into  bankruptcy,  and  by  their 
failure  have  brought  ruin  upon  all  the  parties  concerned,  and  drago-ed 
thousands  of  business  houses  more  or  less  connected  with  them  into 
bankruptcy.  The  railroads  to  which  the  people  of  the  United  States 
had  advanced  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  in  the  shape  of  guaran- 
teed bonds,  or  donated  in  the  shape  of  land-grants,  became  thus 
insolvent  simply  through  the  mismanagement,  recklessness,  and  cor- 
ruption of  their  officers,  who  had  no  other  intention,  indeed,  when 
they  began  the  construction  of  those  roads,  than  to  rob  the  people  of 
the  United  States  of  their  public  lands  and  moneys,  regardless  of 
future  results. 

Some  of  those  roads  now  lie  unfinished  ;  hundreds  of  thousands  of 


200  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

laborers  have  been  turned  out  of  employment ;  iron,  steel,  woollen,  cot- 
ton, silk,  and  other  factories  have  been  closed  ;  banks  have  suspended, 
and  countless  families  have  been  reduced  to  poverty  by  the  general 
bankruptcy.  Would  not  this  whole  calamity  have  been  averted,  and 
the  lands  and  moneys  squandei-ed  away  upon  the  railroad  companies 
saved  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  if  the  government  had  con- 
ducted those  enterprises  itself,  and  directed  their  management? 
Wlien  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  received  from  Congress  its  grant 
of  forty-seven  million  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  acres  of  land, 
it  estimated,  and  not  unreasonably,  the  value  of  that  land  after  the 
completion  of  the  road  at  $473,000,000,  and  the  entire  cost  of  the 
construction  of  the  road  at  only  $120,000,000.  It  is  impossible  to- 
believe  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  could  not  have 
carried  out  an  enterprise  established  on  so  sure  a  footing,  not  only 
without  any  loss  to  the  people,  but  to  their  great  and  permanent, 
benefit.  Just  take,  apart  from  all  other  facts,  the  following  facta 
in  regard  to  the  California  Central  Pacific, — the  most  monstrous- 
monopoly  of  all  railroad  monopolies  in  the  United  States.  I  quote 
from  a  letter  written  by  Col.  Broadhead,  who,  during  his  stay  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  summer  before  last,  has  made  the  affairs  of  this- 
company  a  special  study.      He  says  :  — 

"  It  has  been  but  a  short  time  since  the  passenger  fare  from  Los 
Angeles  to  Oakland  was  $28,  to  San  Francisco  $20  ;  thus  compelling^ 
every  passenger  to  cross  the  ferry  twice  (which  is  owned  by  the  com- 
pany), or  pay  $8  more  if  he  wished  to  stop  at  Oakland.  The  present 
rate  per  ton  on  hay  from  Los  Angeles  to  Fort  Yuma  is  $27.50,  to- 
San  Francisco  $6  per  ton,  although  the  distance  to  San  Francisco  is- 
more  than  one  hundred  miles  further.  I  know  personally  that  the 
same  fare  is  charged  from  Colton  to  Lathrop  as  from  Colton  to  San 
Francisco,  although  the  distance  to  San  Francisco  is  nearly  one 
hundred  miles  further ;  all  on  the  same  line,  and  where  there  is  no^ 
competition,  as  there  is  none  between  any  of  the  points  to  which  I 
have  referred.  The  power  of  this  corporation  on  the  Pacific  coast 
is  such,  that  public  men  and  public  journals  are  afraid  to  speak  out 
in  opposition  to  its  exactions. 

"But  this  power  is  not  confined  to  the  Pacific  coast.  It,  together 
with  the  Union  Pacific,  controls  the  only  avenue  of  trade  across  the 
continent.  If  a  man  in  St.  Louis  wishes  to  ship  goods  to  any  point  in 
Nevada,  say  in  the  neighborhood  of  Palisades  or  Winnemucca  Station, 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  261 

on  tlie  Central  Pacific  Railway,  he  is  compelled  not  only  to  pay  his 
freight,  but  to  have  his  goods  carried  to  San  Francisco,  three  hundred 
miles  further,  and  then  returned  to  the  point  of  destination,  and  to  pay 
the  return-freight  also  before  he  can  have  his  goods  delivered.  This 
seems  monstrous  and  incredible,  but  it  is  true.  The  passenger  fare 
to  Omaha  is  $100,  but  the  two  companies  charge  the  same  fare  — 
$100,  and  not  a  dollar  less  —  from  San  Francisco  to  Cheyenne, 
about  four  hundred  miles  nearer  to  San  Francisco ;  so  that  if  a  pas- 
senger wishes  to  go  to  St,  Louis  by  way  of  Denver,  the  distance 
being  about  the  same  as  by  way  of  Omaha,  he  has  to  pay  $156, 
whereas  the  whole  fare  by  way  of  Omaha  is  only  $116.  This  is  to 
keep  travel  off  of  the  Kansas  Pacific,  and  to  compel  travellers  to  go 
by  way  of  the  Union  Pacific.  And  yet  these  roads  were  built  by  the 
money  of  the  people  of  the  United  States." 

Then,  this  also  should  be  considered:  that  railways  and  telegraphs 
are  important  agencies  in  carrying  on  war.  They  are  a  part  of  the 
sinews  of  war.  No  people  prizing  their  liberty  can  afford  to  sur- 
render their  railways,  canals,  telegraphs,  or  postal  offices  and  lines 
to  private  monopolies  or  corporations.  Government  might  as  well 
grant  the  taxing-power  to  private  corporations  as  the  public  high- 
'wa3'S ;  for  the  railroad  magnates  levy  any  tax  they  please  upon  the 
traffic  and  travel  on  their  roads.  The  people  own  the  government 
and  may  control  it,  but  they  have  no  interests  in  such  corporations, 
which  are  simply  despotisms. 

But  then  the  argument  is  urged,  that  those  I'oads  were  a  national 
necessitN^,  and  advanced  in  the  interests  of  the  whole  American  people. 
To  this  I  reply,  that  in  such  a  case  the  American  people  should  have 
built  and  owned  the  roads  themselves,  and  thus  saved  the  lands  and 
subsidies,  which  after  all  have  merely  gone  towards  enriching  the 
directors  and  Credit  Mobiliers  of  those  corporations.  But  those 
roads  were  not  unprofitable  ventures,  and  need  never  have  been  if 
they  had  from  the  beginning  been  built  and  run  by  the  United  States 
government. 

Besides,  let  us  consider  this:  If  you  or  I  want  to  start  a  grocery- 
store  or  build  a  foundry,  do  we  go  to  the  Congress,  or  the  State 
legislature,  or  County  Courts,  to  beg  for  the  land  on  which  to  erect 
our  buildings,  or  ask  subsidies  to  pay  for  their  erection?  And  if  we 
did,  would  our  alms-prayer  be  listened  to  for  a  minute?  Wh}^  noth- 
ing but  derisive  laughter  would  greet  our  petition.     On  what  ground, 


262  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

then,  should  a  set  of  men,  forming  themselves  into  a  company,  have 
the  assurance  to  ask  alms  from  the  public  treasuries?  If  the  two 
Pacific  Railroads  could  not  be  built  by  the  men  who  organized  the 
companies  that  proposed  to  build  them,  on  a  paying  basis,  why  should 
the}'^  ask  Congress  not  onl}'  to  give  them  public  lands  for  building 
their  railroads,  but  also  to  give  them  exclusive  and  absolute  control 
of  them,  and  then  levy  extortionate  prices  and  outrageous  charges, 
not  onl}'^  upon  the  citizens  for  freight  and  passage,  but  even  upon  the 
government  itself  for  mail  and  military  service,  whereby  the  people 
and  the  government  are  made  to  pay  illegal  taxes  to  a  rapacious  cor- 
poration for  the  use  of  their  own  property. 

But  whenever  this  proposition  of  governmental  control  of  our  rail- 
roads is  broached,  the  cry  is  raised,  that  official  corruption  would 
thereby  be  still  further  increased.  This  fear  of  the  growth  of  corrup- 
tion in  the  public  departments  of  the  government  is,  in  truth,  the  main 
ground  of  the  strong  opposition  made  against  every  proposed  extension 
of  the  powers  of  government  over  affairs  that  involve  large  money 
transactions.  Now,  I  shall  certainly'  not  attempt  to  deny  the  existence 
of  widespread  corruption  in  the  various  departments  of  our  govern- 
ment, nor  will  I  urge  in  its  mitigation,  that  this  corruption  is  a  natural 
result  of  our  imperfect  departmental  and  criminal  codes,  and  one  of 
the  worst  legacies  left  us  by  the  late  civil  war.  But  I  do  say  that,  in 
spite  of  this  corruption,  the  government  of  the  United  States  carries 
on  the  operations  of  its  various  departments  cheaper  than  the}^  could 
be  carried  on  by  private  corporations,  and  that  all  well-conducted 
governments  have  made  the  same  experience.  Has  not  the  legal- 
tender  issue  shown  the  national  government  to  be  the  safest  as  well 
as  the  most  economical  banker?  If,  then,  the  national  government  can 
conduct  all  these  gigantic  operations  of  public  intercommunication 
so  much  cheaper  than  private  corporations,  why  should  not  the  same 
rule  hold  good  in  regard  to  railway  enterprises?  I  confess  that  I 
cannot  see  a  single  reason  ;  and  even  the  only  objection  which  has 
been  advanced  —  that  it  would  place  so  much  appointing  power  in 
the  hands  of  our  general  government,  if  all  our  railroads  were  to  l)e 
placed  under  direct  national  control  —  loses  its  weight,  when  it  is 
remembered  that  railroad  officials  must  be  expert  in  their  special 
branches  of  business,  and  can  no  more  be  appointed  and  kept  in 
office  for  political  considerations  than  the  officials  of  the  signal- 
service  or  of  the  coast-survey  bureaus.     Besides,  as  has  been  shown 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  263 

in  the  First  Part  of  this  work,  I  propose  to  divide  the  appointing 
power  amongst  several  distinct  departments. 

But  even  if  there  were  some  danger  in  establishing  such  a  new  de- 
partment of  the  general  government,  it  surely  could  be  no  greater 
than  that  with  which  the  people  are  threatened  by  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  railroad  interests  of  the  country  in  the  hands  of  such 
gigantic  monopolies  as  we  behold  now.  The  people  of  the  United 
States,  under  the  proposed  system  of  laws,  will  be  able  to  control 
the  whole  administration  of  public  affairs  in  all  departments,  includ- 
ing the  railway,  highway's,  and  telegraphic  intercommunication.  As 
these  are  now  arranged,  the  whole  power  is  in  the  liands  of  despotic 
monopolies. 

The  four  great  roads,  that  control  the  greater  part  of  our  internal 
commerce,  —  the  New  York  Central  Road,  the  Erie  Road  (with  its 
extension  to  the  Pacific  Ocean),  the  Pennsylvania  Central  Road,  and 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Road,  —  witli  their  connections,  are  at  present 
banded  together  to  charge  rates  fixed  by  a  joint  committee,  to  which 
the  public  are  forced  to  submit,  or  forego  those  privileges  of  railroad 
intercommunication  without  which  modern  civilization  is  next  to  im- 
possible. But  the  effects  of  such  a  combination  are  far  more  wide- 
reaching  than  would  appear  from  a  mere  consideration  of  their  local 
power.  Its  power  over  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  countrj'  is 
strong  enough  to  excite  the  gravest  apprehensions.  Some  eight 
million  tons  of  agricultural  products  are  now  sent  every  year  by  the 
Western  States  to  the  seaports  of  the  East,  and  only  two  million  tons- 
of  them  can  be  carried  by  the  Erie  Canal.  Over  six  million  tons  of 
grain  must,  therefore,  be  annuall}'  moved  over  the  railroads  of  tliat 
comlnnation,  or  pool,  which  thus  artificiall}^  has  the  power  of  fixing 
the' price  of  all  the  agricultural  products  of  the  West. 

Other  countries  have  been  forced  to  acknowledge  the  necessity  of 
such  a  governmental  control  over  railroads,  and  wh}^  should  the  eyes 
of  our  people  alone  be  shut  to  it,  especially  as  our  peculiar  political 
institutions  invest  them  with  so  much  more  danger  to  us?  Even  the 
German  Empire,  which  for  a  long  time  hesitated  to  meet  this  ques- 
tion of  railroad  supervision  by  governmental  authority,  has  at  last 
been  forced  to  prepare  for  its  establishment.  A  commission  ap- 
pointed to  report  on  the  subject  a  few  years  ago,  while  admitting  the 
difficulties  that  would  arise  in  placing  all  the  railroads  of  a  country 
so  extensive  as  Germany  under  the  control  of  the  government,  was 


264  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

nevertheless  forced  to  confess  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  safety 
and  freedom  of  transit :  — 

"At  the  same  time,  the  commission  has  never  been  able  to  escape 
the  conviction  that  the  railroad  business,  considering  the  extension  it 
has  received  in  tliese  days  and  what  is  to  be  expected  from  it  in  the 
future,  must  ultimately  lead  to  the  possession  of  all  railroads  by  the 
State.  Railroads  are  public  modes  of  transportation,  and  are,  there- 
fore, in  the  nature  of  jy^djl'c  highicays.^  It  is  only  by  shrewd  aggres- 
sions, in  various  ways,  that  the  construction  and  running  of  railroads 
liave  been  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  State  and  allowed  to  be  con- 
trolled by  despotic  private  corporations,  that  now  usurp  the  functions 
of  government.  Nevertheless,  this  state  of  things  cannot  continue, 
*  *  *  and  hence  the  commission  considers  it  desirable  that  the 
State  government  should  always  keep  in  mind  the  possibility  of  ob- 
taining this  control,  and  take  such  steps  as  will  facilitate  its  realiza- 
tion." 

If  this  holds  true  in  regard  to  the  German  Empire,  it  is  certainly 
far  more  applicable  to  our  own  republic.  Hitherto  the  most  effective 
bulwarks  of  our  free  institutions  have  been  our  State  and  Federal 
judiciaries,  and  now  the  power  of  our  railroad  companies  has  assumed 
such  gigantic  proportions  that  the}'  publicly  boast  of  their  power  to 
buv  up  the  courts;  and  even  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
hitherto  considered  irreproachable,  has  not  been  able  to  escape 
this  general  suspicion. 

In  the  celebrated  case  of  M\irdoch  &  Clark  v.  Governor  Wood- 
son and  Attorney-General  Ewing,  which  was  decided  b}'  a  majorit}' 
of  the  court  in  favor  of  the  railroads,  Justices  Miller  and  Davis,  in 
their  dissenting  opinion,  found  themselves  forced  to  sa}- :  — 

"But  of  what  avail  ai-e  constitutional  restrictions  of  legislative 
power,  or  legislative  restrictions  of  municipal  power,  if  the}'  are  dis- 
regarded by  the  legislatures  and  municipalities. 

"  It  ma}^  be  said,  that  there  remains  to  the  people  the  protection  of 
the  courts.  But  language  is  at  best  a  ver}'  imperfect  instrument  in 
the  expression  of  thought,  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  govern- 
ment found  in  constitutions  must  necessarily  be  declared  in  terms 
very  general,  because  they  must  be  ver}^  comprehensive. 


1  This,  it  will  be  observed,  is  the  same  point  taken  b\'  onr  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  which  I  toolc  note  of  in  this  book.     See  below. 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  265 

"  Tlie  ingenuity  of  casuists  and  linguists,  the  nice  criticism  of  able 
counsel,  the  zeal  which  springs  from  a  large  pecuniary  interest,  and 
the  appeal  of  injured  parties  against  the  bad  faith  of  the  legislatures 
who  violate  the  Constitution  are  easily  invoked,  and  their  influence 
persuasive  with  the  courts,  as  they  always  must  be. 

"And  if  language  as  plain  as  that  we  have  been  considering,  a 
purpose  so  firmly  held  and  clearly  expressed,  is  to  be  frittered  away 
by  construction,  then  courts  themselves  become  but  feeble  barriers 
to  legislative  will  and  legislative  corruption,  and  the  interest  of  the 
people,  which  alone  is  to  suffer,  has  but  little  to  hope  from  the  safe- 
guards of  written  constitutions. 

"These  instruments  themselves,  supposed  to  be  the  peculiar  pride 
of  the  American  people,  and  the  great  bulwark  to  personal  and  public 
rights,  must  fall  rapidly  into  disrepute  if  they  are  found  to  be  effi- 
cient only  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich  and  powerful,  and  the  absolute 
majority  on  any  subject  will  seek  to  enforce  their  views  without 
regard  to  those  restrictions  on  legislative  power  which  are  used  only 
to  their  prejudice." 

When  two  of  the  most  learned  and  able  justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  feel  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  make  use 
of  language  so  strong  and  suggestive,  it  surely  is  time  for  the  people 
to  awake  to  the  danger  whicli  threatens  this  republic  from  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  judiciary,  through  the  overpowering  influence  exercised 
by  gigantic  corporations.  This  influence  need  not  be  in  the  nature 
of  a  bribe,  nor  would  I  even  assert  that  judges  have  rendered  deci- 
sions unduly  favorable  to  railroad  corporations  with  a  consciousness 
of  such  influence  upon  them,  but  the  evil  is  all  the  more  dangerous 
in  that  it  works  insiduously,  though  it  may  not  result  in  absolute 
crime. 

It  is  also  a  suggestive  fact,  that  the  enormous  earnings  of  these 
monopolies  enable  them  to  retain  in  their  constant  employ  the  most 
eminent  lawyers ;  whilst  the  State  governments,  from  fear  of  being 
charged  with  extravagance,  allow  but  meagre  fees,  and  must  either 
rely  upon  the  patriotism  of  lawyers  or  employ  inferior  counsel  at 
starvation  prices. 

Another  circumstance  to  be  observed  is,  that  while  courts  feel 
more  or  less  inclined  to  favor  railroad  corporations,  no  such  inclina- 
tion is  manifested  in  cases  where  public  or  municipal  corporations 
are  concerned.     It  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  in  nearly  every  Western 


266  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

State,  a  number  of  counties,  cities,  and  towns  have  been  suborned 
into  the  issuing  of  bonds  for  railroad  and  other  purposes  to  such  an 
extent,  and  by  means  so  evidently  fraudulent,  as  to  necessitate  a 
rate  of  taxation  absolutely  ruinous  ;  and  that  in  nearly  every  ease 
where  the  defrauded  municipal  corporations  have  applied  to  the 
courts  for  redress,  it  has  been  refused  them. 

I  do  not  propose  to  argue  here  the  question  of  law  raised  in  the 
various  eases  alluded  to,  or  even  to  assert  that  the  decisions  in  those 
cases  have  been  improper,  but  I  do  desire  to  call  public  attention  to 
the  remarkable  fact,  that  for  some  3'ears  past  —  ever  since  these 
monopolies  have  grown  up  to  their  present  power  —  the  decisions  of 
the  courts  have,  as  a  rule,  leaned  in  their  favor,  and  been  against  the 
tax-pa^'ers,  and  their  State,  count}^,  and  municipal  governments. 

In  conclusion,  I  desire  to  make  some  reference  to  the  purely  con- 
stitutional point  involved, — that  is,  the  right  of  Congress  to  take 
such  action  in  regard  to  these  gigantic  corporations  as  I  have  herein 
suggested. 

In  a  late  debate  in  Congress  on  the  rights  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  it  was  held,  on  the  part  of  the  company,  that  the  powers 
conferred  upon  it  by  its  charter  were  perpetually  granted,  and  that 
no  subsequent  Congress  could  repeal  or  amend  its  charter ;  which,  in 
other  words,  means,  that  one  Congress  may  incorporate  two  or  more 
individuals  as  a  company,  and  give  them  any  rights  and  privileges  it 
pleases,  — for  instance,  all  the  powers  and  prerogatives  of  the  national 
government  itself, — and  that  no  subsequent  Congress  can  lawfull}' 
repeal  such  grant.  Which  would  effectually  put  an  end  to  our  whole 
form  of  government  by  a  single  act  of  Congress. 

To  prevent  such  an  abandonment  of  the  right  of  eminent  domain 
and  representative  governmental  power,  which  is  inoHenahly  vested 
in  the  people  in  a  cooperative  government,  and  to  secure  which  to 
the  government,  beyond  the  power  of  dispute,  was  one  of  the  main 
reasons  why  the  original  Articles  of  Confedei-ation  had  to  make  room 
for  our  present  National  Constitution,  the  founders  of  that  Constitu- 
tion incorporated  in  it  this  clause  (sect.  8,  art.  1):  — 

"Congress  shall  have  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign 
nations  and  among  the  several  States." 

Now,  those  framers  of  the  Constitution,  chary  as  they  were  in 
words,  were  ver}-  careful  to  select  just  such  few  words  as  would 
govern  the  whole  case. 


PUBLIC    HIGHWAYS.  267 

Says  Mr.  Webster :'  — 

"Maritime  defence,  commercial  regulation,  and  national  revenue 
were  laid  at  the  foundation  of  the  national  compact.  They  are  its 
leading  principles  and  the  cause  of  its  existence.  They  were  primary 
considerations  not  only  with  the  convention  which  framed  the  Consti- 
tution, but  also  with  the  people  when  the}^  adopted  it.  They  were  the 
objects,  and  the  only  important  objects,  to  which  the  States  were  con- 
fessedl}'  incompetent.  To  effect  these  l\v  means  of  a  national  govern- 
ment was  the  constant,  prevalent,  the  exhaustless  topic  of  those  who 
favored  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution." 

The  following  is  from  that  eminent  jurist,  Judge  Story.  In  speak- 
ing of  the  power  of  Congress  to  regulate  interstate  commerce,  he 
says : — 

"  It  is  a  power  vital  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Union,  and  without  it 
the  government  would  scarcely  deserve  the  name  of  national  govern- 
ment, and  would  soon  sink  into  discredit  and  imbecility.  It  would 
stand  as  a  mere  shadow  of  sovereignt}^,  to  mock  our  hopes  and  involve 
us  in  a  common  ruin." 

And  this  from  a  no  less  eminent  constitutional  writer.  Judge  Cooley : 

"I  do  not  understand  that  the  right  of  eminent  domain  can  be  ex- 
ercised on  behalf  of  private  parties  or  corporations,  unless  the  State 
permitting  it  reserves  to  itself  aright  to  supervise  and  control  the  use 
by  such  regulation  as  shall  insure  to  the  public  the  benefit  promised 
thereby,  and  as  shall  preclude  the  purpose  which  the  public  had  in 
view  in  authorizing  the  appropriation  being  defeated  by  partialit}'-  or 
unreasonable  selfish  action  on  the  part  of  those  who,  only  on  the 
ground  of  public  convenience  and  welfare,  have  been  suffered  to 
make  the  appropriation."  ^ 

Again  Judge  Cooley  says :  — 

"And  it  is  believed  that  an  express  agreement  in  the  charter  that 
the  power  of  eminent  domain  should  not  be  so  exercised  as  to  impair 
or  affect  the  franchise  granted,  if  not  void  as  an  agreement  beyond 
the  2dov:er  of  the  legislature  to  make,  must  be  considered  as  only  a 
valuable  portion  of  the  privilege  secured  by  the  grant,  and,  as  such, 
is  hable  to  be  appropriated  under  the  power  of  eminent  domain.  The 
exclusiveness  of  the  grant,  and  the  agreement  against  interference 


1  See  Webster's  Works  by  Curtis,  vol.  1,  p.  103. 

■^  The  People  v.  Township  Board  of  Salein,  20  Mich.  -483. 


268  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

with  it,  if  valid,  constitute  elements  in  its  value  to  be  taken  into 
account  in  assessing  compensation ;  but  appropriating  the  franchise 
in  such  a  ease  no  more  violates  the  obligation  of  the  contract  than 
does  the  appropriation  of  land  which  the  State  has  granted  under  an 
express  or  implied  agreement  for  quiet  enjoyment,  but  which,  never- 
theless, may  be  taken  when  the  public  need  requires."  ^ 

Again :  in  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
rendered  in  the  "Granger  Cases,"  March  1,  1877,  of  Munn  &  Scott  v. 
The  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  4  Otto,  113,  Chief  Justice  Waite 
said :  — 

"This  brings  us  up  to  inquire  as  to  the  principles  upon  which  this 
power  of  regulation  rests,  in  order  that  we  may  determine  what  is 
within  and  what  without  its  operative  effect.  Looking,  then,  to  com- 
mon law,  from  whence  come  the  rights  which  the  Constitution  protects, 
we  find  that  when  private  property  is  affected  with  a  public  interest 
it  ceases  to  be  juris  privaii  only.  This  was  said  by  Lord  Chief  Jus- 
tice Hale  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago  in  his  treatise,  De  Porti- 
bus  3faris,  and  has  been  accepted  without  objection  as  an  essential 
element  in  the  law  of  property  ever  since.  Property  does  become 
clothed  with  a  public  interest  when  used  in  a  manner  to  make  it  of 
public  consequence,  and  affect  the  community  at  large.  When, 
therefore,  one  devotes  his  property  to  a  use  in  which  the  public  has 
an  interest,  he  in  effect  grants  to  the  public  an  interest  in  that  use, 
and  must  submit  to  be  controlled  by  the  public,  for  the  common  good, 
to  the  extent  of  the  interest  he  has  thus  created.  He  may  withdraw 
his  grant  by  discontinuing  the  use,  but  so  long  as  he  maintains  the 
use  he  must  submit  to  the  control." 

I  cite  another  authority.  It  occurs  in  the  case  of  Gray  v. 
The  Clinton  Bridge.^  The  case  arose  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 
United  States  for  the  District  of  Iowa.  The  questions  were  with 
respect  to  an  act  of  Congress  of  February  17,  1867,  as  to  a  bridge 
erected  b}^  a  railroad  company  across  the  Mississippi  River  at  Clinton, 
Iowa.  In  commenting  upon  the  act.  Judge  Miller,  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  in  deciding  the  case,  said :  — 

"Navigation,  however,  is  only  one  of  the  elements  of  commerce. 
It  is  an  element  of  commerce  because  it  affords  the  means  of  trans- 


it Coolc^y's  Const.  Liin.  281,  282. 
2  1  Woolworth. 


PUBLIC    HIOinVAYS.  269 

porting  passengers  and  merchandise,  the  intercourse  of  which  is 
commerce  itself.  Any  other  mode  of  effecting  this  vvovild  be  as  much 
an  element  of  commerce  us  navigation.  When  this  transportation 
or  interchange  of  commodities  is  carried  on  by  land,  it  is  commerce 
as  well  as  when  carried  on  by  water;  and  the  power  of  Congress  to 
regulate  it  is  as  ample  in  one  case  as  in  the  other.  The  '  commerce 
among  the  States '  spoken  of  in  the  Constitution  must,  at  the  time 
that  instrument  was  adopted,  have  been  mainly  of  this  character,  for 
the  steamboat,  which  has  created  our  great  internal  commerce  on  the 
rivers,  was  then  unknown. 

"Another  means  of  transportation,  equal  in  importance  to  the 
steamboat,  has  also  come  into  existence  since  the  Constitution  was 
adopted :  a  means  by  which  merchandise  is  transported  across  States 
and  kingdoms  in  the  same  vehicle  in  which  it  started.  The  railroad 
now  shares  with  the  steamboat  the  monopoly  of  the  carrying  trade. 
The  one  has,  with  great  benefit,  been  subjected  to  the  control  of  salu- 
tary congressional  legislation  because  it  is  an  instrument  of  commerce. 
Is  there  any  reason  why  the  other  sliould  not?  However  this  question 
may  be  answered  in  regard  to  that  commerce  which  is  conducted 
wholly  within  the  limits  of  a  State,  and  is  therefore  neither  foreign 
commerce  nor  commerce  among  the  States,  it  seems  to  me  that  when 
these  roads  become  parts  of  great  highways  of  our  Union,  transport- 
ing a  commerce  which  embraces  many  States,  and  destined,  as  some 
of  these  roads  are,  to  become  the  channels  through  which  the  nations 
of  Europe  and  Asia  shall  interchange  their  commodities,  there  can  be 
no  reason  to  doubt  that  to  regulate  them  is  to  regulate  commerce 
both  with  foreign  nations  and  among  the  States,  and  that  to  refuse  to 
do  this  is  a  refusal  to  discharge  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of 
the  Federal  government.     *     *     * 

"  Whenever  subjects  in  regard  to  which  a  power  to  regulate  com- 
merce is  asserted  are  in  their  nature  national,  or  admit  of  one 
uniform  system  or  plan  of  regulation,  they  are  exclusively  within  the 
regulating  control  of  Congress. 

"Transportation  of  passengers  or  merchandise  through  a  State,  or 
from  one  State  to  another,  is  of  this  nature. 

"  Hence  a  statute  of  a  State  imposing  a  tax  upon  freight  taken  up 
within  the  State  and  carried  out  of  it,  or  taken  up  without  the  State 
and  brought  within  it,  is  repugnant  to  that  jirovision  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  which  ordains  that  Congress  shall  have 


270  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

power  to  regulate  cotnmerce  with  foreign  nations  and  among  the 
several  States,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes." 

On  appeal,  the  Supreme  Court  sustained  the  opinion  of  the  Circuit 
Court. 

I  have  quoted  enough  to  show  that  we  are  not  remediless  in  this 
contest  with  railway  corporations  created  by  Congress.  The  whole 
question,  so  far  as  the  law  is  concerned,  hinges,  as  I  have  said  before, 
on  this  inquiry :  whether  Congress  has,  under  our  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, the  right  to  grant  to  any  person  or  corporation  an  irrepealablie 
charter  for  an}^  purpose  whatever.  I  insist  that  it  is  not  competent 
for  Congress  to  make  a  grant  by  charter  whereby  it  would  be  pre- 
cluded from  exercising,  for  the  future,  an^^  of  the  essential  attributes 
of  sovereignty,  and  that  Congress  cannot  diminish  the  powers  of  its 
successors  by  irrepealable  legislation ;  and  in  this  opinion  I  am  sup- 
ported by  all  the  great  constitutional  jurists  of  the  United  States. 

Finally,  as  I  have  said  before,  there  is  no  formidable  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  the  Federal  and  State  governments  taking  lawful  possession 
of  all  the  public  railway-highways  in  the  republic,  and  running  them 
for  the  common  benefit  of  all  citizens,  at  reasonable  rates  for  passage 
and  freight.  The  people  should  own  and  control  their  public  high- 
ways and  all  other  means  of  public  intercommunication.  The  har- 
nessing of  steam  and  electricity,  by  the  inventive  genius  of  Fulton 
and  Morse,  has  multiplied  the  products  of  human  industry  about  five- 
hundred-fold ;  but  the  vast  benefits  arising  from  these  discoveries 
ought  not  to  be  turned  into  means  of  oppression  and  wrong  by  cor- 
porations, that  usurp  the  powers  of  government  under  oppressive 
charters  granted  by  the  State  and  Federal  legislatures. 


TAXATlOiS,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  271 


TAXATION^,   DUTIES,  A^^D   IMPOSTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   NATURE   OF   TAXATION. 

When  the  people  of  a  certain  district,  territory,  or  State  gather 
themselves  into  a  pohtical  unit}^  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  each 
citizen  his  right  to  life,  freedom,  and  property,  and  thereby  his  right 
to  the  fit  and  harmonious  use  of  all  the  faculties  of  his  mind  and 
body,  they  establish  a  government  to  carry  out  their  purpose.  This 
government  requires :  First,  money-salaries  for  the  persons  composing 
it,  since  they  have  no  other  means  of  support ;  and,  second,  money  for 
the  execution  of  those  measures  which  the  government  considers 
essential  to  carry  out  its  purposes  and  to  execute  the  law.  In 
private  associations,  such  money-salaries  and  expenses  are  obtained 
from  the  profits  of  the  associations,  and  deducted  before  the  declara- 
tion of  a  dividend. 

Government,  however,  does  not  propose  to  make  any  profit,  redi- 
visible  among  its  citizens,  but  simpl}'-  to  conduct  all  its  functions  on 
the  most  economical  basis.  It  does  not  propose  to  make  out  of  its 
postal,  railroad,  and  other  functions  money  enough  to  pa}-  its  own 
expenses,  since  such  a  course  would  be  manifestly  unjust  to  the 
majority  of  the  people.  It  is,  therefore,  bound  to  assess  all  the 
expenses  of  its  administration  upon  the  whole  people  indiscrimi- 
nately, which  assessment  is  called  taxation. 

The  problem  arises  here:  How  is  that  taxation  to  be  levied  justly 
and  impartially  upon  all  values  alike  in  the  same  proportion  ? 

It  is  one  of  the  old  legal  superstitions  that  only  land  is  real  prop- 
erty, and  hence  that  its  possession  must  be  the  basis  of  all  taxation. 
This  superstition  had  its  origin  in  the  feudal  arrangement  of  assess- 
ing each  vassal  a  specified   number  of  warriors,,  according  to  the 


272  LIHEIITV    AND    LAW. 

extent  and  population  of  his  landed  property ;  the  landed  proprietors 
alone  being  considered  worth}-  of  direct  taxation. 

Moses  did  not  make  use  of  this  inequitable  species  of  taxation  ;  he 
simply  levied  a  capitation-tax  of  a  half-shekel  on  every  male  in  the 
nation,  besides  a  tribute  of  the  first  fruits  and  the  first  born  of  all 
domestic  animals,  together  with  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  priestly 
tribe  of  the  Levites,  and  every  third  year  a  tithe  for  the  support  of 
the  poor.  It  is,  moreover,  to  be  observed,  that  the  undue  increase  of 
these  taxes  under  the  kings,  when  the  organic  law  of  Moses  had 
already  lost  much  of  its  supremacy,  and  when  thus  taxes  began  to 
be  levied  upon  lands,  houses,  and  foreign  merchandise,  materially 
assisted  in  the  final  utter  overthrow  of  the  Mosaic  code,  the  disruption 
of  the  kingdom  after  the  death  of  Solomon,  and  the  secession  of  the 
ten  tribes,  which  a  few  centuries  after  was  followed  by  the  scattering 
of  the  Jewish  people  over  the  world. 

Neither  in  the  Greek  nor  in  the  Roman  Republics  were  taxes  ever 
levied.  They  supported  their  organizations,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  by  the  plunder  of  war ;  and  it  was  only  in  the  later  times  of 
the  Roman  Empire, that  divers  kinds  of  levies  were  practised  to  meet 
the  enormous  expenses  of  its  rulers. 

But  in  the  feudal  times  a  king  levied  upon  his  subordinate  princes, 
whenever  war  was  necessary,  according  to  the  terms  of  their  feudal 
lien,  and  had  to  recover  his  other  necessaries  from  his  own  domains 
and  the  plunder  obtained  by  the  war.  The  noble  landed  possessors 
again  covered  their  expenses  by  divers  arrangements  with  their  free- 
holders, tenants,  slaves,  etc.,  or,  if  very  noble,  by  plundering  who- 
ever fell  into  their  hands,  and  particularly  the  Jews. 

But  it  is  very  evident  that  thus  to  consider  land  as  the  only  real 
taxable  property  is  a  wrong  and  unjust  procedure.  Take  a  farmer 
who  owns  a  farm,  say,  worth  $8,000,  its  annual  income  being  $500. 
You  assess  him  as  worth,  say,  $6,000, — it  being  a  foolish  custom  always 
to  assess  at  about  one-third  less  than  the  actual  value.  Next  you 
call  upon  a  physician  who  has  an  extensive  practise.  He  has  no  real 
property,  —  none  at  all ;  hence  you  do  not  assess  him.  Neverthe- 
less the  physician  has  an  annual  income  of,  sa}',  $10,000. 

This  is  flagrant  injustice.  The  farmer  has  land  worth  $500  a  year, 
and  the  physician  has  an  income  from  his  practise  worth  $10,000  a 
year;  and  yet  under  that  system  the  latter  pays  no  tax,  while  the 
former  pays  an  exorbitant  one,  simply  because  his  property  is  in 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  273> 

land.  The  unjust  inequalitj-  becomes  still  more  glaring  where,  in 
some  States,  if  the  farmer  has  mortgaged  his  land,  worth  $8,000,  for 
$6,000,  he  pays,  nevertheless,  taxes  upon  the  whole  value,  where  his 
interest  in  it  is  only  $2,000.  The  farmer's  land  is  nothing  more 
than  a  source  of  revenue,  like  the  practise  of  the  physician ;  in  either 
case  the  income  should  be  taxed.  If  a  person  has  other  real  estate 
than  that  from  which  he  derives  income,  and  holds  it  unimproved  and 
without  leasing  it,  he  should,  if  practicable,  be  taxed  for  the  income 
it  would  bring  if  used  or  leased. 

Taxation,  to  be  just,  should  be  primarily  assessed  according  to  the 
respective  net  incomes  of  all  citizens,  to  be  ascertained  as  stated. 
Thus  the  farmer  should  pay  taxes  upon  his  income,  and  not  upon 
the  real  estate  from  which  it  is  produced;  the  manufacturer  no 
taxes  upon  his  factory,  machinery,  stock  material,  capital  used,  or 
his  dwelling-house  ;  nor  the  physician  upon  his  office,  library,  med- 
icines, or  dwelling-house ;  and  the  reasonable  necessary  expenses  of 
carrying  on  such  business,  or  those  pertaining  to  the  practise  of  a 
physician,  should  be  deducted  from  the  gross  income  in  all  cases  ;  the 
rule  being  to  tax  net  income  only. 

But  where  such  assessment  is  made  upon  the  unproductive  wealth 
of  citizens,  that  assessment  should  be  made  upon  the  real  value,  since 
every  other  form  must  prove  unjust,  and  cannot  bear  equally  upon 
all.  As  things  are  at  present,  we  assess  the  $30,000,000,000  of  our 
whole  national  wealth  at  only  $14,178,986,732.  That  this  must 
operate  great  wrong  on  many  is  evident.  Massachusetts,  for  in- 
stance, paying  taxes  on  $1,591,000,000  of  its  computed  wealth  of 
$2,132,000,000,  is  greatly  wronged  if  New  York  pays  taxes  on 
$1,900,000,000,  when  the  real  value  of  her  wealth  is  $6,500,000,000  ; 
and  similar  injustice  cannot  fail  to  occur  in  the  assessments  of  indi- 
vidual citizens  in  the  separate  States. 

The  assessment  made  upon  the  income,  however,  should  include 
all  income,  and  no  source  of  income  should  ever  be  exempted  by  law 
from  taxation.  It  is  directly  violative  of  all  justice  to  exempt  from 
taxation  certain  bonds  bearing  interest,  or  any  other  property,  thereby 
establishing  among  the  tax-payers  a  privileged  class,  or  a  moneyed 
aristocracy.  It  was  bad  enough  to  sell  our  interest-bearing  bonds, 
in  many  instances,  at  only  one-half  their  par  value,  —  bonds  that 
bore  heavy  interest,  and  that  have  since  been  unjustly  made  pay- 
able, both  capital  and  interest,  in  gold,  —  but  it  was  an   additional 

18 


274  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

outrage  upon  the  people  to  exempt  these  bonds  from  taxation.  This 
has  created  a  privileged  class  in  our  republic,  utterly  inconsonant 
with  the  principles  of  a  just  government,  bearing  equally  upon  all 
citizens. 

But  our  present  mode  of  taxation  operates  unjustly  also  in  another 
way.     Take,  for  instance,  the  following  figures :  — 

In  1875,  out  of  a  revenue  from  internal  taxes  of  somewhat  over 
$103,000,000,  the  North-Eastern  States,  including  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  paid 
$4,000,000,  but  in  proportion  to  population  should  have  paid  $9,250,- 
000,  and  according  to  wealth  nearly  $14,000,000.  The  IMiddle  States, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsjdvania,  and  Delaware,  $24,000,000. 
Their  contribution  according  to  population  would  have  been  the  same 
amount,  but  their  proportion  according  to  wealth  would  have  been 
$38,500,000.  The  North-Western  States  and  the  Territories,  includ- 
ing Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  Montana,  Dakota,  Colorado,  Arizona,  Idaho,  Utah, 
and  W^'oming,  paid  $43,500,000.  Their  proportionate  share  accord- 
ing to  population  would  have  been  onl}'^  $30,333,333,  and  according 
to  wealth  only  $27,500,000.  The  Southern  Middle  States,  including 
Marvland,  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and 
Missouri,  paid  $26,000,000;  but  their  proportion  according  to  popu- 
lation would  have  been  only  $17,750,000,  and  according  to  wealth 
only  $11,500,000.  The  Cotton  States,  including  South  Carolina,' 
Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas,  Arkansas, 
and  Tennessee,  paid  $2,250,000  ;  but  their  proportion  according  to 
population  would  have  been  $19,500,000,  and  according  to  wealth 
$17,000,000.  The  Pacific  States  paid  over  $3,000,000  ;  but  according 
to  population  should  have  paid  less  than  $2,000,000,  and  according 
to  wealth  less  than  $2,250,000. 

But  if  our  system  of  Federal  taxation  works  thus  unjustly,  oppres- 
sively, and  encourages  corruption,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  our 
systems  of  State  and  municipal  taxation  are  equally  deficient  and 
inequitable.  Indeed,  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  there  is  more  dissat- 
isfaction expressed  with  the  excessive  amount  of  the  taxes,  or  the 
injustice  of  the  system  under  which  they  are  assessed.  Take  the 
assessment  of  real  estate,  to  which  I  have  already  referred  in  another 
connection,  as  an  instance. 

No  rule  is  established  by  which  to  determine  the  actual  value  of  a 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IJVirOSTS.  275 

piece  of  property.  One  board  of  assessors  may  fix  it  at  $1,000,  and 
anotlier  board  at  $2,000,  both  boards  acting  in  perfect  good  faith. 
Wlio  is  to  decide,  and  Vhat  assessment  is  to  rule?  Movable  prop- 
erty is  exposed  to  the  same  uncertainty  as  to  its  value,  not  to  mention 
that  over  one-half  of  it  escapes  taxation  altogether,  because  its  exist- 
ence is  unknown  to  the  assessors.  The  taxation  of  the  property  of 
corporations  involves  even  still  more  difficulties  and  injustice.  First, 
there  arise  the  intricate  questions  wliether  all  the  stock  of  those  cor- 
porations ought  to  be  taxed,  and  in  wliose  hands  it  ought  to  be  taxed, 
and  whether  the  debts  of  the  corporation  ought  to  be  taken  into 
account  in  the  assessment.  But  the  most  difficult  problem  is  to  dis- 
cover the  market  value  of  the  property  owned  by  these  corporations. 
The  assessment  of  railroad  property  illustrates  this  difficulty  most 
strikingly,  as  the  following  instances  will  show :  — 

In  a  dispute  that  had  arisen  concerning  the  taxation  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific  Railroad,  it  was  shown  conclusively  that  the  real  value  of  the 
road-  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  $20,000,000,  and  that  it  paid  a  six 
per  cent  dividend  on  that  amount.  The.  road  had  been  assessed, 
however,  at  only  one-half  of  that  sum,  —  $9,659,423.  Nevertheless, 
the  president  of  the  road  returned  its  actual  value,  under  oath,  at 
only  $3,716,920,  — not  one-fifth  of  what  it  ought  to  have  been. 

The  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain  Railroad,  again,  which  was  con- 
structed at  a  cost  of  $20,000,000,  was  assessed  at  only  $6,266,334. 

The  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad,  finally,  which  was  worth  at  least 
$25,000  per  mile,  according  to  the  sworn  statement  of  its  own  chief 
officer,  was  assessed  only  at  the  rate  of  $10,000  per  mile. 

The  following  table  of  a  late  date  exhibits  still  more  clearly  this 
general  inequality  of  assessment  in  the  different  Stales :  — 


276 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


State  Debts,  Valuation,  and  Taxes  for  1878-9. 


States. 


Date  of 
Statement. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 
California 
Colorado 
Connecticut 
Delaware 
llorida  . 
Georgia  . 
Illinois  . 
Indiana  . 
Iowa  .  . 
Kansas    . 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine .    . 

Maryland 

Massachusc 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri  . 

Nebraska 

Nevada    . 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 
New  York    .    . 
North  Carolina 
Ohio     .... 

Oregon    .    .    . 

Pennsylvania . 

Rhode  Island  . 
South  Carolina 
Tennessee  .  . 
Texas  .... 
"Vermont  .  . 
Virginia  .    .    . 

West  Virginia 

Wisconsin  .    . 


Sept.  30, 

Sept.  30, 

Oct.    31, 

Nov. 

Dec. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Oct. 

July 

Oct. 


1S79 

1879 
1878 
1878 
1878 
1879 
1878 
1878 
1878 
1879 
1877 
1878 


Amount  of  State 
Debt. 


Funded. 


$7,809,200 

2,680,000 
3,403,000 
None 
4,967,600 

953,000 
1,284,700 
10,644,.'i00 

552  742 
4,998!l7S 

545,43.1 
1,181,975 


1879     1,858,008 


Jan.      1,  1879  11,724,800 
Jan.      1,  1879    5,848,900 


Oct.      1,  1877 


Jan.  1, 

Oct.  1, 

Dec.  22, 

Jan.  — , 

Jan.  1, 

Nov.  30, 

Jan.  1, 


1879 
1879 

1878 
1879 
1879 
1879 
1879 


June    1,  1879 


Oct.  31, 
Sept.  .30, 
Sept.  30, 
Nov.  15, 


1878 
1878 
1879 
1878 


Jan.     1,  1879 
Dec.     1,  1878 


Sept. 

Oct. 

Dec. 

Sept. 

Aug. 

Dec. 


Un- 
funded. 


P,320,000 
None 
123,803 


10,905 
None 


1,035,943 
2,521,657 


10,758,678 

33,020,464 

913,150 

2,675.000 

,525,000 

16,758,000 
499,267 
557,017 

3,459,100 

2,196,300 
9,154,055 
16,960,045 
6,476,905 

320,000 


2,  1879 

31,  1878 

21,  1878 

I,  1878 

1.  1879 


122,002 
'  250,666 


88,625 
179,503 


926,695 
10,160,183 


331,575 


113,883 

None 

1,608,730 

4,201,902 


21,875,621 

2,534,500 

5,130,9661 

•^''.•?21,300 

i:3,861 

l:!9,500! 

i;  1878  29,350,826' 

Creation  of  State  debt  pro 
\      hibited  by  Constitution. 
Sept.  30,  18791    2,252,0571 


Amount  of  Taxable 
Property  as  Assessed. 


Real. 


Personal. 


$827,399 

613,957 
4,105,884 

155,5061 
2,246,490] 

134,400! 

250,473! 
1,129,990 
3,300,000 
2,608,488 

965,002 

705,060 

1,430,957 

2,432,188[ 
880,007  j 

1,063,958: 

1,000,000' 
115,300; 
672,6471 
933,539 

2,752,230 
918,413 
252,404 

400,000 

820,000 
5,323,149 

533,635 
4,496,376 

323,583 

6,092,001 

492,360 
715,982 
626,529 

1,396,170 
292,228 

2,500,000 


O  00 


I  $117,486,581  /  -0 

)  Real  and  Personal.  ( 
$54,606,057     $32,286,484  65 
454,641,311     140,431,866  55 
25,804,345       17,268,303i36 
238,027,032     106,379,945  15 

50 

18,950,160  10,521,06770 
140,153,250  95,506,28050 
994,214,374  206,908,736  33 
637,763,081  246,605,747 .30 
303,383,682  79,618,995  20 
96,695,457  41,131,186,55 
j  345,037,875  j  \.r.. 

\  Real  and  Personal.  \  \ 
177,000,0001      32,361,402  60 
I  224,579,569  )  L^ 

*  Real  and  Personal.  \ 

17 


247,044,271 

\  Real  and  Personal.  \ 

1,090,749,235     438,771,779 


308,753,036 

175,788,979 

95,937,398 

425,995,888 

47,391,781 

16,820,384 


3>^ 
66,127,992;  17 
45,141,650:20 
33,370,957  35 
163,543,097  40 
27,968,018  60 
12,744,289,90 


199,080,353 
Real  and  Personal. 


445,918,221 

2,376,252,178 

91,679,918 

1,092,116,952 


160,497,340 

379,488,140 

56,884,639 

490,190,387 


41,436,086 
Real  and  Personal. 
No  tax  on  \ 
Real  Est.  i 


20 

25 
29 

32>£ 
29 

70 


159,382,242 


188,655,569 
85,633,873 

202,340,815 
83,174,600 
70,849,386 

246,391,193 

515,241       95,079,808 
681,620     322,470,945 


67,397,249 
40,083,341 
20,871,338 
174,457,409 
16,845,123 
76,178,438 

33,480,119  30 

90,631,981  16}f 


In  fact,  it  is  this  inequality  of  the  distribution  of  taxes,  not  onlj^ 
upon  States  and  sections  of  country,  but  also,  and  chiefly,  upon  indi- 
viduals, which  is  the  main  ground  for  the  general  disinclination  of 
people  to  pay  their  assessed  taxes,  and  a  disposition  on  the  part  of 
otherwise  strictly  honest  men  to  dodge  their  tax-bills.  The  State 
assessors  of  New  York,  in  a  recent  report  on  the  subject,  mention, 
however,  that  it  is  not  only  the  evasion  of  assessment  on  personal 
property,  but  many  and  vast  inequalities  in  the  valuation  placed  upon 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  277 

the  same  kinds  of  property  in  different  parts  of  tlie  State,  of  wliicli 
<;omplaint  is  made.  Bank-stock,  for  instance,  is  valued  at  forty  per 
<3ent  in  some  counties,  at  par  in  others,  and  at  one  hundred  and  thirty 
per  cent  in  others.  In  some  parts  of  tlie  State  real  estate  is  assessed 
at  fifty-six  per  cent  of  its  cash  value,  while  bank-stock  is  listed  at  its 
lull  value.  To  make  the  unfairness  of  the  present  system  more  clear, 
the  assessors  suppose  the  case  of  a  man  having  $5,000,000,  which  he 
wishes  to  invest  in  five  different  kinds  of  property.  The  first  million 
-would  cost  him  $25,800  in  taxes,  and  yield  a  net  income  of  $40,000; 
the  second  would  cost  $38,480  in  taxes,  and  yield  a  net  income  of 
$G0,000;  the  third  would  cost  but  $2,247  in  taxes,  and  yield  a  net 
income  of  $70,000;  the  fourth  would  cost  $6,750  in  taxes,  and  yield 
a.  net  income  of  $80,000;  the  fifth  would  cost  $34,150  in  taxes,  and 
yield  a  net  income  of  $25,800. 

Now,  a  purely  income  tax  would  do  away  with  all  the  difficulties 
suggested  by  these  New  York  assessors.  The  subject  is  one  so 
important,  and  one  so  little  understood  generally,  that  I  cannot  for- 
bear quoting  from  an  eminent  writer,  who  deals  with  the  question, 
however,  mainly  in  regard  to  its  connection  with  the  amount  of  taxes 
iill  classes  of  people  have  to  pay  upon  the  dutiable  articles  of  com- 
merce which  they  consume.      He  says :  — 

"  The  irregularity  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  in  the  several  States 
raises  the  necessity  of  a  radical  reform  of  our  system  of  national 
taxation.  Its  burden  does  not  bear  upon  the  people  in  proportion 
to  their  ability  to  pay.  Our  taxes  are  all  indirect,  and  being  laid 
upon  articles  of  consumption,  the  consumers  pay  them  at  the  end 
of  the  account,  together  with  the  profits  on  the  increased  capital 
required  to  pay  the  customs  and  excises.  The  people  contribute  the 
entire  revenue  as  consumers,  and  not  as  property-holders ;  cmd  the 
poorest  are  consumers  of  articles  that  are  taxed  from  forty  to  two 
hundred  per  cent.  The  wealthy  pay  no  more  than  the  poor  and  the 
middle  classes,  except  so  far  as  their  consumption  is  greater. 

"Fortunately,  through  the  returns  under  our  late  income-tax,  we  are 
able  to  approximate  the  amount  of  this  difference  in  consumption. 
The  aggregate  return  of  incomes  in  New  York  City  for  18G7-8,  with 
the  number  who  made  returns,  was  as  follows :  — 


278  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Total  Income.  Tax-payers. 

1867 $(J8,045,862  17,430 

1868 85,597,484  17,919 

Population 900,000      Families,  180,000 

Families  that  returned  no  income 162,081 

Number  of  persons  in  the  income  families 62,716 

Number  of  persons  of  less  than  $1,000 837,284 

"We  count  the  wealthy  class  at  three  and  one-half  persons  per 
family,  and  the  poor  at  over  five.  This  is  liberal  toward  the  rich,  as 
shown  by  the  fact  that  one-fourth  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  — 
being  of  foreign  birth  —  give  to  the  State  more  than  half  her  children  ; 
and  also  by  facts  that  have  been  reported  as  to  the  numbers  in  the 
*  upper '  families  of  New  York  City,  not  including  servants. 

"The  increased  consumption  of  the  sixty-two  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  persons  in  the  income  families  measures  the  greater 
amount  of  revenue  contributed  by  them.  To  get  at  this  we  have 
analyzed  the  thirty-eight  double  columns  of  income-returns  for  1868, 
published  by  the  New  York  Tribune  in  June,  1869,  with  the  following 
results :  — 

No.  Persons.  Amount  Income.                                          Average  Each. 

67 Over  .$100,000 $217,138 

710 From  $20,000  to  $100,000 40,577 

2,774 From  $5,000  to  $20,000 9,204 

5,981 From  $1,000  to  $5,000 2,173 

8,387 Of  $1,000  and  under 380 


17,919 Paid  $1  to  $3,019,218 84,777 

"  It  is  estimated  that  these  classes  respectively  consume  an  average 
of  two,  four,  six,  eight,  and  twenty  times  as  much  of  taxed  products 
as  is  consumed  by  the  average  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  whose 
incomes  are  less  than  $1,000,  averaging  probably  6450,  against  $1,450 
for  the  8,387  persons  in  the  table,  adding  the  $1,000  exempted. 

"  If  we  now  multiply  the  numbers  of  the  several  classes  of  income- 
tax  payers  by  the  ratios  of  two,  four,  six,  eight,  and  twenty,  to  rank 
them  numerically  with  the  mass  of  the  people  as  consumers,  we  shall 
have  the  following :  — 

First  class 1)340 

Second  class 5,680 

Third  class 16,644 

Fourth  class 23,924 

Fifth  class 16,774 

Total  -     .     : 64,362 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  279 

"These  represent  families  rnnking  with  the  average  of  the  people 
as  consumers.     We  now  have  the  following:  — 

Families  returning  no  income 162,081 

Income  families  as  increased 64,3i;2 

"  Suppose,  what  is  not  far  from  the  fact,  that  the  people  of  New 
York  pa}^  $10,000,000  annually  to  the  general  government  on  their 
consumption.  Of  this,  the  162,081  families  pa}^  $7,157,695,  and  the 
64,362  pay  $2,842,305,  against  $958,000  if  they  consumed  no  more 
than  the  mass  of  the  people.  This  gives  an  increased  payment  by  tlie 
17,919  income-men,  on  their  increased  consumption,  of  $1,884,305. 
This  is  nearly  nineteen  per  cent  of  the  aggregate  of  $10,000,000  paid 
by  that  city. 

'•The  $85,000,000  of  income  returned,  in  1868  represented  just 
about  half  the  total  income  of  that  city  o\'er  $500  exemption.  Thus 
it  is  seen  that  the  17,919  persons,  who,  with  their  exempted  $1,000 
added,  obtained  over  half  the  income  of  all  the  people  having  more 
than  $500  each,  paid  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  entire  revenue 
obtained  from  the  city  by  virtue  of  their  vast  surplus  income,  while^ 
the  mass  of  the  people,  with  no  surplus  income,  paid  over  seventy-one 
per  cent  of  the  whole.  In  the  eye  of  justice,  the  income  class, 
Including  all  with  over  $500  of  gross  income,  should  have  paid  the 
whole,  each  one  in  proportion  to  his  income." 

But  the  income-tax  has  still  another  feature  which  strongl}^  recom- 
mends it  for  general  adoption.  It  enables  the  government  to  check 
the  inordinate  growth  of  large  incomes  by  levying  an  additional  tax 
of  a  certain  percentage  above  a  fixed  amount  of  income.  Without 
attempting  to  establish  precise  figures  for  what  must  of  necessity  be 
a  subject  of  practical  legislation,  I  may  illustrate  my  idea  by  the 
following :  — 

Assuming  an  income  of  from  $5,000  to  $10,000,  and  to  be  taxed 
five  per  cent,  an  income  of  from  $10,000  to  $20,000  would  be  taxed 
ten  per  cent ;  from  $20,000  to  $30,000,  fifteen  per  cent ;  from  $30,000 
to  $50,000,  twenty  per  cent;  from  $50,000  to  $75,000,  twenty-five  per 
cent;  from  $75,000  to  $100,000,  thirty  per  cent;  and  for  all  incomes 
over  $100,000,  say,  thirty-five  per  cent.  All  the  surplus  money  thus 
raised  by  taxation,  not  used  for  regular  governmental  expenses,  to  be 
used  for  payment  of  public  debts,  the  establishment  of  schools, 
asylums,  and  internal  improvements. 


280  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

• 

It  has  long  been  conceded,  that  the  extraordinary  increase  of  large 
capitalists  in  our  republic  constitutes  the  greatest  danger  to  which  it 
is  exposed.  We  have  little  or  nothing  to  fear  from  monarchical  ten- 
dencies, little  or  nothing  from  an  aristocracy  of  birth ;  nor  need  we 
apprehend  any  danger  from  priestly  rule,  under  our  system  of  com- 
plete religious  freedom.  But  the  danger  that  threatens  us  is  the  one 
which  all  republics  must  guard  against,  which  killed  all  semblance  of 
popular  freedom  in  the  .Lombardian  republics  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  which  long  l)efore  had  put  an  end  to  the  Roman  Republic,  — tlie 
accumulation  of  inordinate  wealth,  and  consequently  of  power,  in  the 
hands  of  a  very  few  individuals. 

The  establishment  of  the  first"  triumvirate  in  Rome  is  perhaps  the 
most  noted  instance  of  this  danger.  Three  men  —  Pompey,  Crassus, 
and  CiBsar  —  succeeded,  by  an  alliance  of  wealth  with  military  glory 
and  political  ambition,  in  putting  an  end  to  republican  institutions 
in  a  verj^  few  j^ears.  Narrow-minded  Crassus  furnished  the  wealth, 
ambitious  CsBsar  furnished  occasions  to  Crassus  for  constantly  increas- 
ing his  wealth,  and  self-glorifying  Pompey  used  Crassus's  money  to 
^increase  his  power  with  the  people  and  the  army.  But  it  was  the 
man  of  money,  Crassus,  the  narrow-minded,  —  and  men  of  money  are 
o-enerally  narrow-minded,  —  who  really  furnished  the  lever  wherewith 
tiie  republic  was  lifted  out  of  its  axis  and  thrown  into  the  bottomless 
pit  of  subsequent  Caesarism  and  barbaric  invasion. 

Now,  this  same  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  comes 
with  rapid  strides  under  our  very  eyes.  Thirty  years  ago  a.^  man 
worth  a  single  million  was  a  great  rarity  in  our  country  ;  to-day  every 
large  city  counts  its  millionaires  by  the  dozen.  They  have  absolutje 
power  over  the  railroads,  telegraphs,  and  their  tariffs;  they  have 
obtained  the  best  lands  of  the  United  States  by  bribing  Congress  ; 
they  make  corners  in  grain,  and  raise  the  price  of  wheat  and  corn  as 
fancy  prompts  them;  nay,  they  play  with  the  lives  and  health  of 
the  poorer  classes  by  organizing  "syndicates"  for  the  purchase  of 
the  world's  supply  of  opium  and  quinine,  when  they  can  see  large 
profits  ahead. 

This  one  fact  alone  should  be  a  sufficient  warning:  One  of  these 
money-men,  William  H.  Vanderbilt,  recently  sold  a  large  amount  of 
his  railroad  stock,  and  with  the  proceeds  bought  about  Jifty  million 
dollars  of  United  States  registered  four-per-cent  bonds.  And  on 
tJtese  Jifty  millions  he  pays  no  taxes.     Is  this  equitable?     Is  it  just? 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  281 

The  poor  man  pays  as  heavy  a  tax  on  the  pound  of  coffee  or  sugar 
which  he  buys  as  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  but  the  latter  pays  not  a  cent  of 
taxes  on  an  income  of  two  millions  per  annum  derived  from  those 
bonds,  which  two  millions  annually  all  the  other  tax-payers  have  to  pay 
him  through  their  national  government. 

In  truth,  I  hold  the  danger  to  our  rights  and  liberties  so  threaten- 
ing, from  the  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  that  I 
would  even  extend  a  check  upon  it  beyond  the  operation  of  taxation, 
by  limiting  the  power  of  individuals  to  conve}^,  by  gift  or  devise,  their 
property  and  riches  beyond  a  certain  value  or  amount.  The  right  of 
a  State  to  exercise  such  a  restrictive  power  has  never  been  seriously 
questioned,  and  the  expediency  of  exercising  it  is  constantly  gaining 
more  advocates  as  the  evil  increases.  One  of  the  most  illustrious  of 
the  recent  converts  to  a  recognition  of  this  necessity  is  Professor 
Bluntchly,  the  great  German,  or,  rather,  Swiss  jurist.  His  recom- 
mendation of  the  changes  to  be  made  in  the  present  system  is  sub- 
stantially as  follows :  — 

If  the  testator  leaves  direct  heirs,  the  whole  legacy  to  go  to  them ; 
but  if  no  direct  heirs  exist,  a  proportion  of  the  legacy,  increasing  in 
value  with  the  whole  amount,  should  go  to  the  State  or  the  commu- 
nity, as  follows :  If  the  legacy  goes  to  parents,  or  grandparents,  or 
sisters,  or  brothers,  or  their  descendants,  then,  Mr.  Bluntchly  sug- 
gests, the  State  should  take  five  per  cent  of  every  $3,000,  ten  per 
cent  of  every  $20,000,  and  ten  per  cent  additional  whenever  the 
amount  exceeds  $30,000. 

The  more  remote  the  relationship  of  the  heirs,  the  larger  should  be 
the  proportion  given  to  the  State.  If  there  are  no  relatives,  the  State 
should  get  everything. 

The  fund  thus  acquired  by  the  State  should  be  set  apart  for  educa- 
tional and  benevolent  institutions ;  and  in  this  way  wealth  would  be 
made  to  circulate  through  the  body-politic,  even  as  the  blood  circu- 
lates through  the  human  body. 

Whether  this  plan  of  Professor  Bluntchly  is  the  best  that  can  be 
devised,  I  leave  undecided.  Each  country  would  probably  find  it 
incumbent  to  change  the  figures  to  suit  its  special  economical  con- 
dition. I  only  wish  to  emphasize  the  necessity''  of  substituting  some 
such  sj'stem  for  our  present  mode  of  keei)ing  such  a  vast  power  as 
that  of  unlimited  grants  and  devises  unchecked  by  the  law. 


282  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 


CHAPTER  IT. 

THE  TRUE  RULES  OF  TAXATION. 

Adam  Smith  lays  down  the  maxims  of  taxation  in  this  manner:  — 

1.  "The  subjects  of  every  State  ought  to  contribute  towards  the 
support  of  the  government  as  nearly  as  possible  in  proportion  to 
their  respective  abilities,  —  that  is,  in  proportion  to  the  revenue  which 
they  respectively  enjoy  under  the  protection  of  the  State." 

2.  "  The  tax  which  each  individual  is  bound  to  pay  ought  to  b6 
certain,  and  not  arbitrary ;  the  time  of  payment,  the  manner  of  pay- 
ment, and  the  quantity  to  be  paid,  ought  all  to  be  clear  and  plain  to 
the  contributor,  and  to  every  other  person," 

3.  "Every  tax  ought  to  be  levied  at  the  time  and  in  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  the  most  likely  to  be  convenient  for  the  contributor  to 
pay  it." 

4.  "  Every  tax  ought  to  be  so  contrived  as  both  to  take  out  and 
keep  out  of  the  pockets  o"  the  people  as  little  as  possible,  over  and 
above  what  it  brings  into  the  public  treasury  of  the  State." 

These  maxims  are  so  manifestly  just  that  the}''  ought  not  to  stand 
in  need  of  any  arguments  in  their  support.  The  only  equal  taxation 
is  that  which  is  levied  in  proportion  to  the  revenue  which  citizens  re- 
spectively enjoy  under  the  protection  of  the  State,  — that  is  to  say, 
upon  their  income.  And  not  only  is  it  the  only  equal  and  just  mode, 
but  it  also  excludes  arbitrariness  in  the  assessment,  and  makes  it 
alwa5's  distinctly  known  to  everj^  person  how  much  his  taxes  will 
amount  to. 

It  is,  furthermore,  the  only  mode  of  taxation  which  can  be  so  reg- 
ulated that  it  can  be  levied  at  the  time  most  convenient  to  the  tax- 
payer, and  which  admits  of  the  cheapest  system  of  collection.  Under 
our  present  system  of  collecting  taxes  and  duties,  the  cost  of  col- 
lecting, in  many  instances,  equals  the  amount  collected. 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AXD    IMPOSTS.  283 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   LIMITS    OF   TAXATION. 

Taxation  should  be  levied  only  for  the  needs  of  the  government  to 
carry  ont  its  functions,  and  for  no  other  purpose  wliatever. 

Under  tlie  present  state  of  things  the  larger  amount  of  the  taxes 
goes,  in  a  direct  or  indirect  way,  towards  the  payment  of  interest  on 
the  bonds,  mortgages,  and  loans  negotiated  by  the  general  govern- 
ment, or  the  several  States,  counties,  and  cities.  By  the  adoption  of 
the  money-system  I  propose,  and  which  is  the  only  sj'^stem  founded 
upon  a  rational  basis  and  compreliension  of  the  real  nature  of  money, 
this  large  amount  of  taxes  would  in  a  very  short  time  cease  to  op- 
press the  people. 

For  with  the  establishment  of  such  a  money-system  by  the  general 
government,  the  prohibition  of  the  issue  of  further  bonds  by  the 
several  States,  counties,  cities,  etc.,  would  necessarily  go  hand-in- 
hand,  since  such  issue  would  interfere  with  the  money-raalving  power 
of  the  general  government,  as  lias  already  been  shown.  Nor,  in- 
deed, as  the  whole  past  history  of  our  cities,  counties,  and  States 
has  shown,  is  there  any  occasion  for  the  issue  of  such  bonds.  With 
rare  exceptions,  those  loans  have  been  contracted  in  the  behalf  of 
upstarting  monopolies,  railroads,  or  other  enterprises,  that,  as  soon 
as  thus  nourished  into  wealtli,  have  turned  around  and  become  a 
curse  to  the  cities,  counties,  and  States  that  cherished  them.  The 
railroad  history  of  Missouri,  Tennessee,  and  North  Carolina  is  full 
of  wholesome  lessons  in  this  respect.  The  financial  history  of  New 
York  City  is  a  still  more  frightful  lesson  in  the  same  direction,  as  to 
the  folly  and  danger  of  permitting  cities  this  prerogative  of  money- 
making  by  the  issue  of  bonds.  Had  New  York  City  had  no  power 
to  borrow  money  on  her  bonds,  the  Tweed  infamy  would  have  been 
impossible,  and  the  citizens  of  to-day  and  of  an  indefinite  future 
would  not  have  been  saddled  with  a  debt  of  over  a  hundred  millions, 
the  interest  on  which  constitutes  about  the  largest  item  in  the  whole 
tax-list.  Indeed,  it  may  be  safely  said  that  the  taxes  paid  by  tlie 
people  during  the  last  ten  years  in  the  way  of  interest  alo'ne  on  the 
loans  contracted  by  their  respective  States,  counties,  and  cities, 
would  have  sufficed  to  make  all  the  improvements  for  which  the 
loans   were   originallv   contracted.     It  is  tliis  interest   which  is  the 


2b4  LIBERTY    AND    LAAV. 

heaviest  tax,  the  real  money-despot,  that  is  to  be  abolished.  In 
the  general  government  its  power  will  be  abolished  b}'  issuing  paper 
money  to  redeem  interest-bearing  bonds ;  in  the  States,  counties, 
and  cities  it  will  be  suppressed  by  prohibiting  their  power  to  con- 
tract loans,  except  from  the  Federal  government  for  the  purposes  of 
liquidation. 

The  individual  alone,  who  chooses  to  put  himself  under  its  rule, 
may  of  course  do  so,  but  for  the  consequences  he  has  onl}'  himself  to 
blame.  Few  individuals  are,  however,  likely  to  be  so  imprudent  in 
their  private  affairs.  It  is  only  through  the  indirect  agency  of  the 
State  that  men  are  guilty  of  these  things.  Men  who  would  rebel  at 
the  least  direct  taxation  are  quite  ready  indirectly  to  tax  themselves 
to  any  extent,  whether  through  the  agency  of  interest  or  of  the  tariff. 

Let  me  add,  in  a  general  way,  some  few  further  suggestions  in 
relation  to  the  subject  of  taxation.  Now,  it  raa}^  at  first  sight  seem 
somewhat  out  of  place  to  mention  in  connection  with  this  matter  of 
general  taxation  the  insurance  business,  which  is  usually  considered 
to  be  of  purely  private  significance ;  but  I  am  very  strongly  of  the 
conviction,  that  the  time  has  come  when  the  various  municipal  and 
State  governments  of  our  republic  should  undertake  at  any  rate  the 
businesss  of  fire-insurance  on  their  own  account,  levying  a  general  tax 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people,  as  is  done  in  Berlin,  Dresden,  and 
other  cities  of  Germany.  Not  only  is  this  system  far  cheaper  than 
our  present  system  of  irresponsible  chartered  corporations,  but  it 
also  interests  ever}^  citizen  in  preventing  the  outbreak  of  fires,  and 
yet  secures  to  each  insured  person  who  has  been  an  innocent 
sufferer  from  conflagration,  the  immediate  and  absolutely  certain 
payment  of  his  claim. 

To  show  how  the  system  works  in  Germany,  I  will  single  out  the 
following  statistics  from  the  report  of  the  Berlin  fire-department  for 
the  year  1872-3,  Berlin  having  then  a  population  of  about  one  milUon 
inhabitants.  The  losses  by  fire  for  that  year  amounted  to  only 
$70,000  (77,574  thalers). 

According  to  the  German  plan  of  insurance,  every  house-owner  in 
the  city  of  Berlin  is  compelled  to  insure  his  buildings,  — though  only 
to  three-fourths  of  their  value,  — and  the  whole  amount  of  insuranee 
in  Berlin  for  that  year,  1872-3,  was  326,928,025  thalers  for  buildings, 
and  355,254,544  thalers  for  personalty.  According  to  the  German 
plan  of  insurance,  again,  the  holder  of  a  policy  does  not  pay  an  an- 
nual, regular  premium,  but  only  so  much  of  an  assessment  as  is  nee- 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  285 

essary  to  pay  his  part  of  the  losses  of  the  year.  The  policy-holders 
of  Berlin  had  therefore  to  pay  only  four  and  two-thiids  cents  for 
eveiy  $100  of  their  insurance,  as  their  annual  assessment  for  the  year 
1872-3.  In  other  words,  it  cost  only  $4.66  a  3^ear  to  insure  a  house 
worth  $10,000  in  Berlin,  whereas  under  our  American  system  a 
similar  house  would  cost  a  premium  of  $75  to  $150  a  year. 

In  machinery  and  technical  perfection,  the  fire  departments  of  St. 
Louis,  Chicago,  and  Cincinnati  are  greatly  ahead  of  tliose  of  Ger- 
many. The  Berlin  fire-department  had  not  then  a  single  steam- 
engine,  and  in  many  cases  had  to  haul  the  water  to  the  places  of  fire 
in  large  casks.  Nor  is  the  organization  of  the  Berlin  fire-department 
very  expensive.  The  whole  expense  for  1872-8  amounted  to  barely 
$90,000;  some  $160,000  less  than  the  cost  of  the  St.  Louis  fire-de- 
partment, for  instance.  But  the  discipline  of  the  Berlin  fire-depart- 
ment is  next  to  perfect,  and  its  telegraphic  communication  with  every 
part  of  the  city  complete.  Every  member  of  the  department  is 
a  trained  soldier,  and  the  strictest  military  discipline  is  preserved. 
Should  it  be  necessary  in  the  course  of  a  fire,  the  next  in  command 
can  always  take  the  place  of  his  superior.  Besides,  while  the  fire 
lasts,  the  chief  of  the  fire  department  has  control  over  the  police,  and 
his  authority  is  supreme.  Ttiis  systematic  cooperation  has  made 
large  fires  next  to  impossible  in  Berlin.  During  the  year  1872-3 
there  occurred  seven  hundred  and  twenty-nine  fires  in  Berlin,  of 
which  number  six  hundred  and  two  were  small  fires,  twenty-three 
chimneys  on  fire,  sixty-four  ordinary-sized  fires,  and  forty  large  fires. 
Of  these  forty  large  fires,  not  a  single  one  extended  into  an  adjoining 
building,  owing  to  the  prompt  and  circumspect  action  of  the  fire 
department. 

The  main  attention  of  the  fire  department  is,  however,  directed 
towards  suppressing  fires  at  the  first  start,  and  hence  to  keep  a  close 
watch  in  every  part  of  the  city ;  and  to  keep  telegraphic  communi- 
cation so  easy  of  access  that  not  one  superfluous  minute  need  be  lost 
in  summoning  assistance. 

Now  let  it  be  remembered,  that  a  citizen  of  St.  Louis,  for  instance, 
pays,  first,  insurance  on  his  building  and  its  contents  ;  he  furthermore 
pays  a  tax  for  the  raiaintenance  of  the  St.  Louis  fire-department. 
The  rates  of  insurance  are  most  likely  too  well  known  to  ray  readers. 
The  rates  of  taxation  can  be  readily  gathered  from  the  following 
tables :  — 


286 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


Expenses  of  the  St.  Louis  Fire-Department  for  the  Year  1S7S-9. 


Building  account 

New  engines  account 

Repairing  engines  account 

Repairing  hook  and  ladder  apparatus  account 

Furniture  account 

Fuel  account 

Hose  account 

New  hose-carriage,  etc.,  account 

Repairing  hose-carriages  and  wagons  account 

Horses  account 

Horse-feed  account 

Horse-shoeing  account 

Harness  account 

Light  account 

Miscellaneous  account 


....  $6,500  51 

....  8,200  00 

....  4,G:!5  09 

.....  806  39 

967  14 

....  1,902  56 

.....  12,98S  75 

....  785  00 

.....  3,S26  25 

....  3,36S  43 

8,928  89 

.....  2,255  50 

.....  2,0.3-;  90 

3,536  11 

S,761)  68 

Salary  account 188,483  89 

Less  credit 


$251,988  09 
952  33 

$251,035  76 


Hence,  while  Berlin,  with  a  population  of  one  million  of  souls,  in 
1872-3  paid  onlj  $90,000  for  its  fire  depnrtraent,  St.  Louis  in  1878-9, 
with  little  less  than  half  that  population,  paid  over  $250,000  to  put 
out  the  fires  that  the  insurance  companies  were  paid  premiums  to  in- 
sure against.  This  does  not  include  the  expenses  of  the  fire-alarm 
telegraph,  some  $15,000  per  year,  nor  the  premiums  of  insurance, 
amounting  to  about  $1,000,000  per  annum. 

Again,  the  losses  by  fire  in  St.  Louis  for  1878-9  were  as  follows :  — 


Months. 


April  .  . 
May  .  . 
June  .  . 
July  .  . 
August  . 
September 
Octoljer  . 
November 
December 
January  . 
Februaiy 
March .    . 

Total    . 


oaq 


$5,120  00 

4,790  00 

16,750  00 

12,260  00 

4,530  00 

11,710  Oo 

7,460  00 

10,890  00 

46,970  00 

120,040  00 

5,410  00 

2,810  00 


$4,005  00 
3,950  00 
7,770  00 

12,060  00 
3,140  00 

11,110  00 
6,660  00 
9,iK)0  00 

46,880  00 

115,500  00 

3,910  00 

2,360  00 


$6,270  00 

29,500  00 

12,225  00 

5,330  00 

3,780  00 

39,890  00 

11,280  00 

21,585  00 

92,470  00 

110,440  00 

18,035  00 

7,380  00 


s  S  •-J    .  < 

i  s  s  '•*^  ^ 


$5,720  00 
28,900  00 
12,125  00 

4,830  00 

1,210  00 
36,270  00 

7,310  00 
19,895  00 
89,790  00 
100,500  00 
17,200  00 

7,030  00 


$11,390  00 

34,290  00 

28,975  00 

17,590  00' 

8,310  00, 

51,600  00 

18,740  00 

32,475  00 

139,440  00 

230,480  00 

23,445  00 

10,190  00 


ill 

III 


$9,725  00 

32,850  00 

19,895  00 

16,890  00 

4,:a0  00 

47,380  00 

13,970  00 

29,795  00 

136,670  00 

216,000  00 

21,110  00 

9,390  00 


$248,740  00     $227,245  00     $358,185  00     $330,780  00 1   $606.925  OO'   $558,025  00 


Total  number  of  alarms 
Number  of  false  alarms . 


291 
8 


Total  number  of  alarms  of  actual  fires 28S 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  287 

The  losses  by  fire  in  Berlin  for  1872-3  amounted,  as  before  said,  to 
onlj^  $70,000.  Tliese  figures  are  surely  eloquent  enough  in  favor  of 
a  substitution  of  the  German  for  our  system  of  fire-insurance. 

And  now  in  regard  to  tlie  life-insurance  business. 

The  present  vicious  life-insurance  system  by  chartered  corpora- 
tions, which  usually  wait  for  an  opportune  moment  to  become  bank- 
rupt, and  leave  their  too  confiding  customers  in  the  lurch,  after 
having  sufficiently  bled  them,  should  also  be  at  once  abolished  by 
law.  This  life-insurance  business  might  be  advantageously  adminis- 
tered by  the  State  and  municipal  governments,  which  would  insure 
far  greater  economy  than  the  present  system,  and,  what  is  even  more 
important,  guarantee  absolutely  certain  and  speedy  payment. 

This,  however,  need  not  interfere  with  the  so-called  cooperative, 
or  benevolent  insurance  companies,  which  are  altogether  private 
societies,  that  practice  insurance  merely  incidentally.  How  different 
the  modus  operandi  of  these  societies  is  from  that  of  the  great  char- 
tered life-insurance  companies  will  appear  from  the  following,  which 
I  quote  from  a  pamphlet  recently  published  on  the  subject  by  Mr. 
Isidor  Bush,  of  St.  Louis:  — 

"With  how  small  an  expense  endowment  funds  for  fraternal  socie- 
ties can  and  should  be  managed,  may  be  learned  from  the  Jewish 
organizations  of  that  kind. 

"District  Grand  Lodge  No.  1,  I.  O.  B.  B.,  in  New  York,  embraces 
over  eight  thousand  members,  in  seventy  lodges;  it  paid  during  1877 
sixty  death-claims  of  $1,000  each=$60,000  ;  its  accumulated  reserve- 
fund  (though  inadequate)  is  —  January,  1878  —  $32,984.82;  its  en- 
tire expense-account  (proceedings,  January,  1878,  p.  64),  $117.67; 
if  you  add  to  this  one-half  the  salary  of  the  Grand  Lodge  secretary 
and  other  officers,  rent  and  general  expenses  of  the  Grand  Lodge,  the 
entire  cost  of  management  would  still  be  less  than  $3,000. 

"The  endowment  fund  of  District  Grand  Lodge  No.  2, 1.  O.  B.  B., 
is  kept  and  managed  by  a  separate  board  of  ti-ustees  and  secretary. 
Their  fourth  annual  report  (January,  1878)  shows  two  thousand  five 
hundred  and  forty-one  members ;  receipts,  collected  in  four  years 
from  assessments  and  interest,  $109,348  ;  endowments  paid,  $65,000  ; 
reserve  fund,  investments  at  interest,  $37,688  ;  cash  on  hand,  $3,389  ; 
entire  expenses  in  four  years,  $3,270. 

"Similar  economy  prevails  in  others,  showing  such  to  be  not  only 


288  Lir.KUTY    AND    LAW. 

possible,  but,  actually  practised.  Assessments  being  uniform,  notices 
of  deaths  and  collections  made  monthly,  at  the  close  of  every  month, 
and  to  the  lodges  only,  the  correspondence  and  work  of  the  endow- 
ment-fund secretary  is  so  much  simplified  that  a  few  leisure  hours 
are  quite  sufficient  to  do  it  promptly  and  well,  and  a  very  competent 
member  can  be  easily  induced  to  do  it  for  a  comparatively  small  com- 
pensation. But  even  in  the  Cincinnati  Mutual  Endowment  Associa-' 
tion,  I.  O.  B.  B.,  consisting  of  a  voluntary  membership  of  about 
twelve  hundred  and  fifty  individuals,  the  total  expenditures  of  man- 
agement have  been,  during  the  ten  j^ears  of  its  existence,  only 
$10,501,  during  which  time  it  has  paid  to  the  ;families  of  its  deceased 
members  $181,220;  or,  in  other  words,  the  expenses  amount  to  but 
five  per  cent  of  the  benefits.  They  should  not  amount  to  more.  Let 
no  promises  of  future  great  results,  of  increase  in  benefits  by  the 
accession  of  new  members,  let  no  taunts  about  misguided  economy 
deceive  you.  Even  misguided  economy  is  better  than  waste  and 
corruption.  Any  endowment  association  where  the  cost  of  manage- 
ment is  considerably  larger  than  five  per  cent — and  in  some  it  is 
almost  equal  to  the  benefit  —  is  no  better  than  most  of  the  life-insur- 
ance companies  were  which  have  lately  passed  out  of  existence. 

"Truly  benevolent  fraternal  societies  have  no  need  of  hired  agents, 
who  are  paid  commissions  for  soliciting  and  obtaining  new  members, 
or  rather  new  risks,  whose  qualifications  consist  in  the  medical  exam- 
hier's  certificate.  Organizations  using  such  adjuncts  were  justly 
refused  to  be  recognized  as  truly  benevolent  associations,  to  whose 
primary  objects  of  brotherly  love  a  feature  of  mutual  insurance  may 
well  be  added,  and  who  are  not  and  will  not  be  interfered  with  by 
either  courts  of  law  or  legislatures." 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS. 


28i^ 


The  large  amount  of  money  invested  in  these  life-insurance  com- 
panies may  be  gathered  from  the  following  table :  — 


Neio   York  Companies. 


•  Assets 

Liabilities 

Premiums 

Total  income 

Death-claims  and  endowments .    .    .    . 

Lapses  and  surrenders 

Total  payments 

New  iH)li<'ios  issued 

Amount  tliereof 

Terminated  policies — Amount  thereof 

Number  of  piMicies  in  force 

Insurance  in  force      


1879. 

Tvelve 

Companies. 


$•202 
lOil, 
30, 
4i: 
14 
7, 
35 

90 
90 


730 


o(;0,039 

i;()7,r.!)4 

(125,21:5 
158,408 

:n.s,07i 

502,650 
086,200 
34,263 
,465,573 
,561,000 
201,799 
,648,500 


J878. 

Fifteen 

Companies. 


$206, 
174 
32 
43 
14 
10 
38; 

87 
116 


552,631 

793,33S> 
,271,633 
357,430 
064.6(;l 
128,115 
141,720 
31,710 
,627,832 
,473,647 
258,706 
,744,88S 


Other  State  Companies. 


Assets 

Liabilities 

Premiums 

Total  income 

Death-claims  and  endowments 
Lapses  and  surrenders    .    .    .    . 

Total  payments 

New  policies 

Amount  thereof 

Policies  in  force 

Insurance  in  force 


J  879. 

Nineteen 

Companies. 


$198, 
166 
22 
35 
15 
5 
31 


709 


967,019 
052,358 
696,507 
012,545 
397,342 
199,532 
,814,13*1 
33,136 
,399.378 
33:5,687 
,312,665 


1878. 

Nineteen 

Companies. 


$197,526 

164,792 

24,964 

37.105 

14,830 

0,967, 

33,986 

35 

69,471 

337 

726,957 


514 

287 
7fhi 
,569 
,090 
879 

:ms 

,330 

,297 
042 
,513 


Or  a  total  of  life- insurance  policies  for  1879  — 

In  New  York  companies $730,048,500 

In  other  State  companies 709, 312, Goo 


Total $1,439,961,155 

Over  fourteen  hundred  million  dollars,  on  which  the  hopes  of 
millions  of  families  depend  ! 

And  finally,  an  end  should  be  put  to  the  abominable  patent-right 
system,  as  it  exists  at  present,  which  allows  inventors  to  apply  for  an 
extension  of  their  patents  —  the  original  term  of  which  is  fixed  b}^ 
law  at  seventeen  years  —  for  seven  years  longer,  and  then  again  for 
another  seven  years,  and  so  on,  ad  iiijiuituyn,  upon  payment  of  $50. 
This  system  has  given  rise  to  the  most  monstrous  monopolies,  of 
which  I  need  only  instance  the  Singer  Sewing-Machine  Company  and 
the  McCormick  Reaper  Company;  and,  besides  levying  cruelly  op- 
pressive taxes  on  the  public,  has  fostered  an  outrageous  system  of 
bribing  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.     When  it  is  considered 

19 


290 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


that  this  patent  business  has  doubled  within  the  last  thirteen  years, 
the  danger  threatened  by  continuing  the  present  system  becomes  at 
once  apparent.  It  is  right  enough  to  secure  the  applicant  a  patent 
for  a  limited  number  of  years  in  his  invention^  but  after  the  expira- 
tion of  that  term  there  should  be  no  reissue  or  extension.  The  fol- 
lowing table  shows  the  growth  of  the  United  States  patent-office 
business  from  1837  to  1878  :  — 


Calendar  Year. 


AppU-    Caveats 
cations.    Jailed. 


1S37 

1S39 
Ici-tO 
ISll 
1842 

1844 
JS45 
JS4t; 
1S47 
1S48 
1849 
1850 
1851 
185-2 
185:! 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1S57 
1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 
186-2 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1S71 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
187ri 
1877 
1878 


Patents 
Isstied. 


735 
847 
761 
819 
1,045 
1,246 
1,272 
1,531 
1,628 
1,955 
2,193 
2,258 
2,639 
2,673 
3,324 
4,435 
4,960 
4,771 
5,364 
6,2-25 
7,653 
4,643 
5,038 
6,014 
6,932 
10,664 
15,-269 
21,276 
20,4-20 
19,271 
19,171 
19,472 
18,246 
20,414 
21,602 
21,638 
21,425 
20,308 
20,260 


228 

312 

391 

315 

380 

452 

448 

553 

60' 

59i 

602 

760 

996 

901 

868 

906 

1,0-24 

1,010 

934 

1,097 

1,084 

700 

824 

787 

1,063 

1,937 

2,7-23 

3,59' 

3,705 

3,624 

3,273 

3,366 

3,090 

3,248 

3,181 

3,094 

2,69' 

2,809 

2,755 


435 

520 

425 

473 

495 

517 

531 

502 

502 

619 

572 

660 

1,070 

995 

869 

1,020 

958 

1,902 

2,024 

2,502 

2,910 

3,710 

4,538 

4,819 

3,340 

3,521 

4,170 

5,020 

6,616 

9,450 

13,015 

13,378 

13,986 

13,321 

13,033 

13,590 

12,864 

13,599 

16,-288 

17,026 

13,619 

12,935 


Cash 
Received. 


Cash 
Expended. 


1:29,289  08 
42,123  54 
37,260  00 
38,056  51 
40,413  01 
36,505  68 
35,315  81 
42,509  26 
51,076  14 
50,264  16 
63,111  19 
67,576  69 
80,752  98 
86,927  05 
95,738  61 
112,656  34 
121,527  45 
163,789  84 
216,459  35 
192,588  02 
196,132  01 
203,716  16 
245,942  15 
-256,352  59 
137,354  44 
215,754  99 
195,593  29 
-240,919  98 
348,791  84 
495,665  38 
646,581  92 
681,565  86 
693,145  81 
669,456  76 
678,716  46 
699,726  39 
703,191  77 
738,278  17 
743,453  36 
757,987  65 
732,342  85 
725,375  55 


Surplus. 


$33,506  98 
37,402  10 
34,543  51 
39,020  67 
52,666  87 
31, -241  48 
30,776  96 
36,244  73 
39,395  65 
46,158  71 
41,878  35 
58,905  84 
77,716  44 
80,100  95 
86,916  93 
95,916  91 
132,869  83 
167,146  32 
179,540  33 
199,931  02 
2 11, .582  09 
193,193  74 
210,278  41 
252,820  80 
'221,491  91 
182,810  39 
189,414  14 
229,868  00 
274,199  34 
361,7-24  28 
639,263  32 
628,679 
486,430  78 
557,149  19 
560.595  08 
665, .591  36 
691,178  98 
679,288  41 
721,6.57  71 
652,542  60 
613,1.52  62 
593,082  89 


$4,721  44 
2,716  49 


5,264  20 
4,538  85 
6,264  53 

11,680  49 
4,105  45 

21,232  84 
8,670  85 
3,0.36  54 
6,816  13 
8,821  60 

16,739  48 


36,919  02 


10,.5'22  42 

35,663  74 

3,531  79 

32,944 '60 

6,179  15 

11,051  98 

74,592  50 

133,941  10 

7,318  60 

52,886  09 

206,715  03 

112,307  .57 

118,121  38 

34,135  03 

12,012  79 

58,989  76 

21,795  65 

105,445  05 

119,190  23 

132,292  66 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMrOSTS.  291 

C  H  A  P  T  E  R     IV. 

THE   TARIFF. 

Now,  the  tariff  is  nothing  but  precisely  such  another  indirect  mode 
of  taxation,  and  has  its  chief  support  in  the  absurd  reluctance  of  men 
to  look  things  boldly  in  the  face  and  tax  themselves  directly  for  their 
necessary  expenses.  The  other  notion  which  sustains  it  —  that  it  is  a 
means  of  protection  to  the  manufactures  of  a  State  —  is  simply  an 
error  of  judgment;  but  the  notion,  that  it  is  a  legitimate  means  of 
raising  rcA'enue,  is  sheer  absra'dity.  Both  of  these  notions  will  have 
to  be  swept  away  with  all  other  superstitions  ;  and  commerce  between 
nations  must  be  made  as  free  as  it  is  between  our  separate  States, 
and  as  it  was  originall}'^,  before  despots  found  it  a  very  effective 
means  in  an  indirect  way  to  increase  the  revenues  of  dij-ect  taxation 
and  plunder. 

So  far  as  our  own  country  is  concerned,  we  can  effect  this  even 
now,  at  any  time.  It  only  needs  courage.  So  far  as  other  nations 
aie  concerned,  the  adoption  of  my  international  code  by  such  nations 
as  are  desirous  to  join  the  proposed  international  federation  would 
surely  pave  the  way  for  free  trade  over  the  whole  extent  of  tlie  globe. 
The  Geneva  arbitration,  in  its  settlement  of  the  fishery  question,  has 
already  shown  —  what,  indeed,  Cobden's  Anglo-French  alliance  had 
before  demonstrated  —  that  this  is  not  a  visionary  proposition,  but 
easil}'  made  actual,  and  sure  to  result  in  prosperity  for  the  people. 

Indeed,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  an  axiom,  that  the  prosperity  of  a 
country  increases  in  proportion  as  all  shackles  on  commerce  and 
interchange  between  men  are  removed.  The  issue  of  paper  money, 
such  as  I  propose,  is  one  of  the  means  to  remove  them ;  the  control 
of  railroads,  establishment  of  canals,  and  improvements  of  rivers  and 
lakes  is  another ;  and  the  abolition  of  all  duties,  in  every  shape,  is  the 
third.  It  has  so  proved  in  the  cases  of  England  and  France,  as  it 
has  proved  in  our  own  case  among  the  several  States. 

Indeed,  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  brought  forward  in  behalf 
of  this  Union,  at  the  time  of  its  establishment,  was,  as  I  have  stated 
before,  that  it  would  cement  all  the  States  together  into  one  commer- 
cial free-trading  body, — from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  along 
every  point  of  the  might}'  Mississippi  RiveV  Valley.  Now,  if  there 
were  any  truth  in  the  protection  theory,  would  not  this,  our  commer- 


292  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

cial  unity,  of  which  we  so  loudly  boast,  be  an  unbearable  curse? 
Ought  not  every  State,  nay,  every  county  and  every  city  in  every 
State,  be  allowed  to  form  a  commercial  unity  of  its  own,  and  levy  a 
tariff  or  octroi  of  its  own,  for  its  own  exclusive  benefit?  But  if  this 
is  not  ^o,  and  if  free  trade  is  the  proper  principle  for  the  thirty-eight 
States  and  ten  Territories  of  this  republic  of  ours,  then  it  must  alsa 
be  the  proper  principle  for  our  commercial  intercourse  with  the  other- 
nations  of  the  earth. 

Originally,  the  tariff  system  was  adopted  by  the  founders  of  our 
republic  in  order  to  pay,  by  its  means,  all  the  expenses  of  govern- 
ment, without  making  the  then  new  Union  odious  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  by  a  direct  taxation.  It  was  this  fear  of  directness  which  led 
to  the  establishment  and  continuance  of  the  tariff.  During  the  war 
of  1812,  duties  were  increased  to  pay  the  expenses  resulting  from  it,, 
but  soon  after  they  were  again  lowered  ;  and  this  policy  was  continued 
until  1860,  when  the  average  duties  did  not  exceed  fourteen  per 
cent,  a  little  higher  than  those  of  Great  Britain,  whereas  now  the 
average  duties  are  fifty  per  cent,  or  nearly  four  times  as  much, — a 
most  excessive  and  burdensome  tax,  levied  in  a  burdensome  manner 
upon  the  people,  and  costing  many  millions  of  dollars  to  collect. 

It  was  the  late  civil  war  that  again  led  to  this  excessive  increase  of 
duties,  which  now  average  fifty  per  cent  on  all  dutiable  articles,  and 
weigh  most  oppressively  upon  the  laboring  classes  of  the  country. 
Nor  were  the  manufacturing  interests  slow  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
new  policy,  and  to  accumulate  vast  fortunes  by  the  profits  thus- 
opened  to  them. 

These  profits  were  naturally  a  tribute  levied  upon  the  people  that 
had  to  purchase  the  manufactured  wares.  The  people  thus  had  ta 
pay,  and  continue  to  pay,  a  double  tax,  —  one  to  the  government  in 
the  shape  of  duties,  and  another  one  to  the  manufacturers  in  the 
shape  of  increased  cost  of  productions. 

It  is  this  inequitable  phase  of  the  tariff  that  has  made  it  so  odious 
as  finally  to  arouse  the  people  to  emphatic  protest  against  its  continu- 
ance, and  to  a  demand  for  the  immediate  removal  of  all  shackles  upon 
the  commercial  intercommunication  of  the  various  nations  of  the 
world. 

To  illustrate :  In  the  State  of  Illinois  there  are  376,441  persons 
engaged  in  agriculture  aqd  58,852  in  manufacture,  while  in  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  279,380  persons  are  engaged  in  manufacture,  and 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  293 

only  72,810  cultivate  farms.  The  total  value  of  all  the  products  of 
the  376,441  Illinois  farmers  for  the  year  1870  is  estimated  at  $210,- 
560,580,  thus  averaging  the  annual  earnings  of  every  farmer  at  S560. 
For  the  same  year  the  total  value  of  all  the  products  of  279,380  manu- 
facturers of  Massachusetts  is  estimated  at  $553,912,568,  which  leaves 
£k  remainder,  after  deducting  the  estimated  value  of  materials  used  in 
the  manufactures,  —$334,413,982,  —of  $219,498,586,  or  an  average 
annual  earning  of  each  manufacturer  of  $749. 

Now,  this  would  be  perfectly  fair  and  legitimate  if  the  manufacturer 
■of  Massachusetts  sold  his  wares  at  the  same  price  at  which  the  Illinois 
farmer  could  procure  them  from  other  sources.  But  this  he  does 
not.  He  sells  them  for  about  fifty  per  cent  higher  rates,  and  the 
United  States  government  enables  him  to  do  so  successfully  by  im- 
posing a  tariff  of  such  percentage  upon  foreign  wares  of  similar  kind 
that  seek  a  market  here.  The  United  States  government  thereby 
compels  the  Illinois  farmer,  whose  annual  earnings  are  only  $560,  to 
pay  the  Massachusetts  manufacturer  an  average  of  fifty  per  cent 
more  than  a  fair  price  upon  his  wares,  in  order  that  his  annual  earn- 
ings may  realize  $749.  This  is  certainly  not  an  equal  administration 
of  the  law,  and,  besides  being  unjust,  tends  to  the  creation  of  those 
large  manufacturing  monopolies  that,  in  the  Eastern  States,  threaten 
the  liberties  of  the  people  as  much  as  the  railway  monopolies  threaten 
those  of  the  agricultural  and  commercial  communities,  and  that  grow 
powerful,  as  has  been  shown,  by  the  indirect  tax  which  a  tariff  enables 
them  to  levy  upon  the  people  at  large  by  the  increased  price  of  their 
products. 

But  even  in  this  protective  element  of  the  tariff  its  intended  effect 
in  some  cases  overleaps  itself,  and  becomes  ruinous  both  to  the  man- 
ufacturer and  the  consumer.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  instance  is 
that  of  wools  and  woollen  goods,  the  duties  on  which  now  average 
at  the  enormous  figures  of  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  per 
cent  ad  valorem.  If  this  duty  did  really  protect  manufacturers,  how 
could  it  have  come  to  pass  that  the  woollen  industry  was  never  so  de- 
pressed as  at  present,  and  that  more  people  than  ever  wear  woollen 
goods  imported  from  foreign  countries? 

If  the  tariff  reall}^  effected  what  it  was  intended  to  effect,  —  the  fos- 
tering of  our  manufacturing  interests,  — how  could  it  happen  that  in  no 
I'ecent  period  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  have  we  had  less 


294  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

exports  and  more  imports  than  we  had  in  1872,  when  the  tariff 
system  was  most  flourishing?  The  products  of  manufactures- 
that  we  then  exported  were  scarcely  wortli  mentioning.  Of  the 
$170,000,000  increase  of  exports  from  1860  to  1872,  Sl70,000,00a 
were  composed  of  breadstuffs,  coin,  provisions,  lumber,  etc.,  leaving 
only  $6,000,000  of  manufactured  wares  for  those  years  under  the 
operation  of  the  high  protective  tariff  that  was  to  effect  such  mag- 
nificent results.  Even  our  export  of  shoes  had  fallen  off,  despite  the 
wonderful  progress  that  had  been  made  of  late  years  in  their  man- 
ufacture. Tlius,  instead  of  making  us  more  independent  in  indus- 
trial matters  of  Europe,  the  effect  worked  by  a  high  tariff  had  been 
precisely  the  reverse,  besides  ruining  our  whole  commercial  marine, 
lowering  the  percentage  of  carriage  of  foreign  trade  by  our  ships 
from  seventy-one  per  cent  in  1860  to  only  about  thirty  per  cent  in 
1871.  And  at  the  present  time  the  German  Empire,  under  Bismarck's- 
direction,  is  seriously  considering  the  proposition  to  shut  off  its  ports 
against  the  commerce  of  the  United  States,  by  means  of  a  high  tariff,, 
as  the  only  effective  protection  against  the  high  protective  tariff  of 
the  United  States,  which  virtually  excludes  importations  from  Ger- 
many. 

Our  trade  with  Southern  Africa  and  La  Plata  is  broken  up  because 
we  cannot  import  the  wool  of  those  countries  at  the  enormous  duty 
now  levied  on  it,  and  our  ships  cannot  afford  to  carry  there  petro- 
leum, fish,  flour,  etc.,  unless  they  have  a  return  cargo.  Our  ships 
cannot  go  to  Spain,  Italy,  West  India,  etc.,  because  we  cannot  im- 
port salt  with  the  present  tariff,  although  imported  salt  is  far  superior 
to  our  own  for  the  preservation  of  meat  and  fish.  The  importation 
of  wool  fell  from  eighty-eight  million  pounds  in  1864  to  twenty-three 
millions  in  1868,  and  the  importation  of  salt  from  four  hundred  and 
six  thousand  to  two  hundred  thousand  tons  in  the  same  time. 

There  ought  to  be  really  no  dispute  on  this  point.  Historically,  it 
was  the  principle  of  free  trade  which  proved  the  most  efficient  agent 
in  bringing  the  people  of  the  old  Confederacy  to  adopt  the  plan  of 
the  new  Union.  No  argument  appealed  with  so  tangible  a  force  ta 
their  apprehension  of  the  vast  benefits  that  must  result  from  the 
Union  as  this  one  of  the  removal  of  all  restrictions  upon  commerce 
between  the  several  States  of  the  Union  in  the  way  of  duties  and  im- 
posts.    This  great  principle  of  free  trade  has   since  then  extended 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  295 

from  thirteen  to  our  present  thirty-eight  States,  —  States  as  indus- 
trially different  from  each  other  as  they  are  when  compared  with 
foreign  States,  and  embracing  all  classes  and  conditions  of  labor, —  and 
still  the  same  grand  results  of  prosperity  and  comfort  have  followed 
it.  No  principle,  again,  was  so  effective  in  arousing  the  people  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  civil  war  to  resist  the  secession  of  any  part  of  the 
country  than  this  of  free  trade,  and  the  consequent  fear  of  having 
clogs  put  on  the  wheels  of  commercial  intercourse  b}^  the  success  of 
the  secession  movement.  The  whole  West  protested  against  the 
notion  of  breaking  up  free  trade  on  the  Mississippi  River.  It  would 
be  a  paradox  to  repudiate  that  principle  in  its  application  to  foreign 
States. 

Again,  when  the  city  of  Chicago  was  burnt  in  that  great  confla- 
gration, from  the  ruins  of  which  it  has  in  so  short  a  time  sprung  up 
again  in  greater  strength  and  beauty  than  before,  the  people  of  tlie 
suffering  city  immediately  petitioned  Congress  to  remov^e  the  pro- 
tective duties  on  all  the  articles  needed  in  the  rebuilding,  thereljy 
acknowledging  at  once  the  great  relief  which  that  removal  would  ex- 
tend to  them.  What  grand  benefits  would  be  realized  by  all  man- 
kind if  that  removal  of  duties  upon  commerce  could  be  made 
universal  over  the  whole  world,  and  thereby  a  main  source  of  inter- 
national hostility  be  removed!  The  adoption  of  my  proposition  for 
an  international  federation  would  doubtless  bring  this  result  about 
in  a  very  short  time,  for  every  nation  would  perceive  the  immense 
advantages  of  universal  free-trade  upon  its  prosperity  and  wealth. 

Meanwhile,  in  our  own  country  it  is  within  our  power  to  take  the 
initial  step  by  abolishing  our  whole  tariff  s^^stem,  with  its  frauds  and 
oppressions,  and  creations  of  monopolies,  as  soon  as  we  are  able  to 
pay  off  or  redeem  our  bonds  with  tlie  money  of  the  country,  to  be 
issued  for  that  purpose,  as  I  have  proposed  should  be  done  at  the 
earliest  day  possible. 

It  is  now  very  generally  conceded  that  a  tariff  works  gross  injus- 
tice, operating  as  it  does  unequally  upon  citizens  of  the  same  State 
as  well  as  upon  the  different  States,  and  tending  greatly  to  decrease 
international  commerce.  Let  us  take  as  an  instance  our  commercial 
relations  with  Canada.  In  1866  the  United  States  government  abro- 
gated the  reciprocity  treaty  of  1854,  which  had  existed  between  this 
country  and  Canada,  and  imposed  a  tax  of  twenty-five  per  cent  as  an 


296 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


average  on   articles  that  had   previously  been  admitted  free.     The 
result  was  as  follows :  — 


Year. 


1853-54 
1854-55 
1855-56 
1850-57 
1857-58 
1858-59 
185il-60 
18H0-61 
1801-62 
1862-63 
1S63-I>4 
1S6.1-65 
1865-06 


S-;"-^ 


!):7,560 
130,734 
310,4-il 
1-24.-295 
.S00,519 
7-27, 551 

s:.  1,381 
,002,933 
,2!i'.»,995 
021,264 
,922,015 
,820,969 
,714,383 


$24,560,860 
27,806,020 
29,029,349 
24,262,482 
23,651,727 
28,154,174 
22,706,328 
22,745,613 
21,079,115 
31,281,030 
29,987,147 
32.553,847 
29,356,572 


This  shows  that  under  the  free-trade  principle  our  imports  from 
Canada  increased  from  about  nine  millions  in  1854  to  six  times  that 
amount  in  1866,  and  that,  according  to  the  same  ratio  of  increase, 
our  imports  ought  to  amount  now  to  about  $125,000,000.  But, 
instead  of  that,  they  are  considerably  less  than  the}^  were  in  1866,  as 
the  foUowins:  table  will  show :  — 


Tewr. 

Imports  to 
United 
States. 

Exports 
from 
United 
States. 

1806-67  

$33,604,178 

30, 362, 221 
.•52,9'.lO,314 
41,089,,S01 
37,124,351 
40,9(il,432 
43,809,070 
48,000,000 

$24,323,169 
26,262,272 
25,197,232 

181)7  68 

186S-69  

1869-70  

26,849,324 

1870-71 

34,502,726 

1871-72   

.32,759,080 
3S,572,.5.56 

1872-73   

1877-78* 

25,000,000 

*  Estiiiiiited. 

This,  however,  is  only  one  item ;  for  it  must  also  be  observed, 
that  whereas  during  the  first  ten  years  of  the  operation  of  the 
reciprocity  treaty  our  exports  to  Canada  exceeded  our  imports  by 
$62,013,545,  the  abrogation  of  that  treaty  turned  the  balance  of 
trade  steadily  against  us.  Then,  again,  those  imports  are  mainly- 
composed  of  ordinary  necessaries  of  life :  lumber,  coal,  wool,  fish, 
breadstuffs,  grain,  flour,  cheese,  vegetables,  and  animals  of  all  kinds ; 
articles  which  Canada  now  exports  to  other  countries,  that  are  sensible 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS. 


297 


enough  to  gatlier  in  the  profits  which  we  now  foolishl}'  deny  to  our 
traders  by  the  bar  of  a  tariff,  and  which  are  specially  demanded  by 
that  section  of  our  country  which  in  the  East  most  closely  adjoins 
Canada,  Is  it  a  wonder  that  such  an  unnatural  state  of  things  en- 
courages one  of  the  meanest  crimes,  —  smuggling,  —  and  in  this  way 
tends  to  corrupt  the  whole  border  population  of  our  Northern  States? 
But  another  instance  of  the  gross  inequality  which  the  tariff  sj^stem 
works  upon  the  different  sections  of  our  country  is  thus  aptly  sum- 
marized by  a  recent  writer  on  the  subject :  — 

"We  proceed  to  show  how  the  national  burden  is  borne  by  the 
leading  States  of  the  East  as  compared  with  the  l(>ading  Stales  of  the 
West.  The  following  table  gives  the  population  in  1870,  the  wealth, 
and  the  amount  per  capita :  — 


states. 


I  Population.  |       Wealth. 


Massachusetts 
Rhode  Island 
Connecticut  . 
New  York  .  . 
New  Jersey  . 
Pennsylvania 


Total 


1,457,35] 
217,353 
537,454 

4,38-2,759 
00(>,096 

3,521,951 


11,023,964 


Per 
Cajnta. 


$2,132,148,741 
296,9B5,(i46 
774,631,520 

6,500,841,264 
940,976,064 

3,808,340,112 


$14,453,903,347      $1,311 


$1,456 
1,366 
1,441 
1,483 
1,038 
1,081 


"In  contrast  with  these  States  take  the  following  six  leading  States 
of  the  West :  — 


Population. 


Wealth. 


Per 
Capita. 


Ohio  .  . 
Illinois  . 
Missouri 
Indiana . 
Kentucky 
Michigan 


2,665,260 
2,539,891 
1,721,205 
1,680,637 
1,321.011 
1,184,059 


$2,235,430,300 

2,121,680,579 

1,284,922,897 

1,268,180,543 

604,318,552 

719,208,118 


835 
741 
755 
457 
607 


Total 


11,112,153 


$8,233,740,989 


$741 


Excess  of  people  in  the  West,  89,189.    Excess  of  wealth  in  the  East,  $6,220,162,358. 

"This  gives  nearly  one  per  cent  more  of  people  in  the  West,  and 
seventy-seven  per  cent  more  of  wealth  in  the  East.  So  that,  in  pro- 
portion to  wealth,  the  national  treasuiy  receives  $1.77  from  the  West 
for  every  $1  received  from  the  East,  making  no  account  for  the  differ- 
ence of  population. 

"  But  this  is  not  all :  the  average  rate  of  all  our  imports  and  excises 
is,  say,  sixty  per  cent.     On  whiskey  it  is  two  hundred.     On  blankets. 


298  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

flannels,  broadcloths  and  pilot-cloths,  cassimeres  and  doeskins,  woollen 
dress-goods,  silk  manufactui'es,  gunny-bags,  and  cloth,  the  rate  ranges 
from  sixty  to  one  hundred  and  forty  per  cent,  it  being  but  sixty  on 
silks.  Importers  and  producers  pay  the  duties  in  advance,  and  there- 
fore sixty  per  cent  more  of  capital  is  required  in  trade,  in  production, 
and  in  distribution  through  the  wholesale  and  retail  dealers. 

"  Without  imposts  or  excises,  the  cost  of  products  to  the  consumer 
would  be  as  follows :  — 

First  cost  to  importer  or  producer $1  00 

Teu  per  ceut  to  importer  or  producer 10 

Ten  per  cent  to  wholesaler 11 

Twenty  per  cent  to  retailer 24 

Total  under  free  trade .     .     f  1  45 

With  duties  at  an  average  of  sixty  per  cent,  the  cost  is :  — 

First  cost,  as  above $1  00 

Duty GO 

Percentages,  as  above 72 


Total $2  32 

Total  under  free  trade 1  45 

Extra  cost  on  account  of  duty 87 

"Thus,  under  our  system  of  taxation,  it  costs  the  people  of  the 
country  $127,000,000  to  get  $100,000,000  into  the  treasury.  This 
shows  the  great  wastefulness  of  the  system.  By  increasing  the 
amount  of  capital  required  in  trade  and  the  industries  fully  sixty  per 
cent^  it  throws  business  into  fewer  hands,  thereby  diminishing  com- 
petition and  increasing  the  cost  of  products  to  the  people.  Hence, 
in  this  regard  it  is  a  swindle  of  sections  with  less  property,  and  still 
more  of  persons  of  little  or  no  property. 

"As  it  costs  the  West  seventy-seven  per  cent  more  in  supporting 
the  government  than  it  costs  the  East,  in  proportion  to  wealth,  seventy- 
seven  per  cent  must  be  added  to  the  cost  of  the  profits  to  importers, 
producers,  and  dealers,  on  products  consumed  in  the  West.  This 
gives  $147,790,000  as  the  cost  to  the  West  on  $100,000,000  of  reve- 
nue. To  this  add  the  $77,000,000  extra  cost  of  $100,000,000  of 
revenue,  on  the  score  of  seventy-seven  per  cent  less  propert}^  and  we 
have  displayed  the  inequality  of  the  sj^stem  in  the  proportion  of 
$229,790,000  to  $127,000,000  as  between  the  West  and  the  East." 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND    IMPOSTS.  299 

In  conclusion,  let  me  ask:  How  did  the  notion  of  obtaining  reve- 
nue b}^  means  of  a  tariff  first  arise?  It  is  simply  a  relic  of  barbarism, 
and  traces  its  origin  to  the  worst  period  of  the  feudal  age,  when  each 
petty  owner  of  a  castle  on  a  crag'  adjoining  a  highway  stopped  the 
luckless  commercial  travellers  that  were  compelled  to  pass  through 
his  domain,  and  forced  them  to  pay  what  he  dignifiedly  called  a 
tribute,  for  the  privilege  of  passing  on  without  broken  bones,  muti- 
lated noses  and  ears,  and  other  like  amenities.  Ought  the  American 
nation  to  perpetuate  such  a  system  of  public  robbery,  especially 
when  that  nation  itself  never  would  have  been  brought  into  existence 
but  for  the  purpose  of  abrogating  that  systern?  And  the  internal- 
revenue  system,  with  its  taxation  on  beer,  highwines,  tobacco,  paper, 
etc.,  is  but  another  form  of  the  same  system  of  public  robbery. 

As  matters  stand  under  the  present  tariff,  each  reader  of  a  news- 
paper, or  of  a  book,  as  well  as  each  writer,  fi"om  the  most  gifted 
author  down  to  the  scribbling  school-boy,  is  robbed  of  an  extra  charge 
on  the  paper  he  uses,  for  the  benefit  of  a  very  few  paper-manu- 
facturing monopolists  ;  and  the  consumer  of  any  kind  of  iron-ware, 
from  an  iron  spoon  up  to  a  ponderous  locomotive,  is  in  the  same  way 
tariff-taxed  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  iron-manufacturers. 

A  system  so  iniquitous  in  all  its  features,  assuredly  should  be  abro- 
gated without  further  argument  or  discussion. 


CHAPTER    V.    • 

CONCLUDING   REMARKS. 

With  all  the  objections  to  our  present  mode  of  taxation  and  to  our 
revenue  system,  outlined  in  the  foregoing  chapters,  it  is  certainly 
surprising,  that  no  steps  have  as  3'et  been  taken  to  establish  an  abso- 
lute system  of  taxation,  operating  equally  upon  all  citizens,  such  as 
I  have  suggested  in  the  substitution  of  an  income-tax,  judiciously 
graduated,  to  take  the  place  of  the  countless  oppressive  modes  of 
taxation  now  resorted  to. 

I  am  well  aware  that  no  system  is  more  unpopular  as  yet,  and  that 
an  income-tax  is  here,  as  well  as  in  England,  the  hete  noir  of  tax- 
payers.    They  will  uncomplainingly  pay  enormous  rates  of  taxation 


300  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

when  levied  upon  tnem  through  means  of  a  tariff  and  internal-revenue 
taxes  on  spirits,  beer,  wines,  tobacco,  and  all  the  other  articles  on 
the  prescribed  list ;  nay,  there  is  even  comparatively  little  grumbling 
when  taxes  are  levied  on  their  real '  property.  But  direct  taxation  on 
their  annual  income  is  held  in  holy  horror,  even  by  the  agricultural 
classes,  who  suffer  most  under  the  present  system.  It  is  impossible 
to  make  the  farmers  understand  that  they  are  specially  interested  in 
having  such  a  graduated  income-tax  established,  and  that  they  are 
the  chief  sufferers  now,  Vvhen  they  must  pay  full  taxes  on  their  real 
property,  while  the  owners  of  personal  property  and  the  professional 
recipients  of  lucrative  incomes  in  cities  pay  only  a  small  part  of  the 
amount  they  ought  justly  to  pay,  and  rich  and  powerful  corporations 
and  monopolies  pay  still  less  in  proportion,  or  contrive  to  escape  tax- 
ation altogether,  even  like  the  bondholders. 

But  in  order  to  make  my  proposed  sx'stem  of  an  income-tax  per- 
fectly effective,  its  establishment  must  be  accompanied  by  measures 
which  will  render  it  impossible  that  taxation  should  ever  become  so 
oppressive  as  to  lead  to  repudiation  of  taxes  altogether.  Make  a  tax 
oppressive,  and  it  will  bring  in  next  to  nothing.  A  heavy  tariff  is  as 
good  as  no  tariff  at  all,  so  far  as  the  revenue  is  concerned,  since  it 
almost  necessitates  smuggling, —  a  source  of  general  demoralization, — 
and  thus  the  emplo3'ment  of  a  number  of  detectives,  whose  salaries 
swallow  up  whatever  duties  are  collected  on  the  goods  not  smuggled 
in.  An  oppressive  tax  on  the  valuation  of  real  or  personal  property 
inevitably  leads  to  lying  and  false  swearing.  Unjust  and  extravagant 
taxation,  finally,  whiqh  arises  from  the  incurrence  of  exorbitant 
public  debts  by  cities,  counties,  or  States,  leads  to  general  repudia- 
tion. These  are  facts  which  it  is  impossible  to  dispute,  and  which 
no  legislation,  however  skilfully  applied,  can  remove.  The  only 
remedy  is  to  extirpate  that  general  aversion  to  the  payment  of  income- 
taxes  which  thus  drives  otherwise  honest  men  to  perjury  and  repudi- 
ation, b}^  removing  its  causes:  the  injustice  of  the  present  mode  of 
taxation,  and  the  oppressiveness  of  the  taxes  themselves.  The 
former  object  we  can  accomplish  by  substituting  general  income-taxes 
for  the  numberless  modes  of  taxation  now  in  force ;  the  latter  object 
necessitates  legal  measures,  that  may  at  the  moment  seem  altogether 
incomiDatible  with  our  American  notions  of  the  powers  inherent  in 
every  municipal  government,  but  which,  I  believe,  will  prove  indis- 
pensable in  the  removal  of  one  of  the  most  serious  evils  under  which 


TAXATION,    DUTIES,    AND     IMPOSTS.  301 

we  suffer.  Every  State  constitutional  convention  hereafter  assem- 
bling should  prohibit  the  State  itself,  and  every  county  and  city 
within  its  limits,  from  contracting  an}'  further  bonded  debts.  If 
money  is  needed  for  public  improvements,  let  the  amount  required 
be  raised  at  once  by  taxation.  It  is  absurd  to  argue  that  the  tax- 
paying  people  would  object  to  such  a  procedure,  on  the  plea  that  the 
future  generations  ought  to  bear  a  part  of  the  expense  incurred  by 
the  present  age  for  permanent  public  improvements ;  for  this  propo- 
sition involves  as  great  a  mathematical  fallacy  as  ever  was  proposed. 
For  it  is  very  evident  that  a  generation  of  thirty  years  must  pay  a 
public  debt  thus  incurred,  not  only  once,  but  twice  or  threefold,  as 
interest,  and  then  turn  it  over  unpaid  to  the  coming  generations. 
This  is  especially  the  case  where  the  rate  of  interest  is  so  high  as  it 
is  in  the  United  States. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  favorite  municipalities,  a  citj'  or 
county  which  issues  bonds  for  some  scheme  of  public  improve- 
ments—  generally  put  forward  in  the  interest  of  contractors  —  has 
to  pay  from  eight  to  ten  per  cent  interest  (counting  in  commissions). 

Now,  the  interest  on  such  a  bond  will  equal  in  from  seven  to  ten 
years,  and  more  than  equal  if  compounded,  —  that  is,  if  new  bonds 
have  to  be  issued  for  the  payment  of  the  interest,  as  is  usually  the 
case,  —  the  entire  sum  of  the  principal  loan.  Hence  a  thirty  years' 
generation  will  have  paid  in  that  time  more  than  three  times  the 
amount  of  the  debt  in  interest,  and  still  leave  the  debt  unpaid. 

In  short,  the  only  honest,  and  at  the  same  time  most  economical 
system  for  the  administration  of  public  finances  is  the  same  as  that 
for  the  management  of  private  finances,  —  always  to  live  within  our 
income,  and  never  to  borrow  money  for  the  improvement  of  our 
property.  Put  aside  the  interest,  and  in  a  few  years  there  will  be 
money  enough  in  the  treasury  to  pay  for  the  improvements. 

But  there  is  still  another  feature  connected  with  the  tariff  system 
which  deserves  special  attention  at  the  present  time. 

By  keeping  up  our  present  protective  tariff  we  unite  all  Europe 
against  our  exports,  as  a  sort  of  retaliatory  measure.  The  German 
Empire,  which  suffers  the  most  from  our  tariff  system,  naturally  leads 
the  van  ;  and,  as  I  have  said  before,  it  is  no  longer  a  diplomatic  secret, 
that  Bismarck  is  agitating  a  united  European  blockade  against  Ameri- 
can commerce,  just  as  Napoleon  blockaded  that  of  Great  Bi4tain  in 
1807. 


302  LIBERTY   AND   LAW. 


intercom:miinicatioi!^  by  the  peess. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE   PEESS. 


The  original  conception  of  a  newspaper  was,  as  its  name  indicates, 
that  of  a  publication  which  should  contain  the  authentic  and  latest 
news  of  public  interest  that  could  be  ascertained  and  collected  for 
circulation.  Prior  to  the  invention  of  types  for  printing,  such  papers 
were  written  and  copied  for  distribution,  necessarily  to  a  very  limited 
extent.  But  since  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  printing  and  the  appli- 
cation of  steam  as  a  motive  power  for  the  printing-press,  the  publica- 
tion and  circulation  of  newspapers  has  assumed  vast  proportions,  as 
a  general  means  for  intercommunication  between  all  citizens  and 
peoples. 

This  most  wonderful  discovery  of  modern  times  for  the  general 
dissemination  of  intelligence  throughout  the  world  has  thus  multi- 
plied the  old  methods  of  communicating  ideas  and  news  more  than  a 
million-fold,  illumining  the  darkest  districts  of  the  world,  and  opening 
to  the  people  a  new  era  of  universal  intelligence,  instruction,  and 
progress.  So  long  as  these  newspapers  were  managed  simply'  for  the 
dissemination  of  truthful  information,  their  influence  was  always  in 
favor  of  the  freedom  of  the  human  race  ;  but  the  extraordinary  exten- 
sion of  the  circulation  of  printed  newspapers  initiated  a  great  change 
in  their  nature  and  character.  Formerly,  men  who,  from  their  high 
culture  and  wisdom,  felt  authorized  to  give  publicit}^  to  their  indi- 
vidual opinions  on  public  questions,  did  so  in  pamphlets,  over  their 
own  signatures.  The  newspapers  had  not  3'et  attempted  to  control 
public  opinion  for  private  personal  aggrandizement  or  persecution, 
and  the  pamphlets  exercised  no  further  influence  than  the  strength 
of  their  facts  or  arguments  justified.  Their  readers  were  invited  on>y 
to  the  exercise  of  self -thinking  and  individual  judgment. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION    BY    THE    TRESS.  303 


CHAPTER  n. 

THE   DEMORALIZATION  OF  THE  PRESS. 

During  that  first  period  of  its  existence,  wliile  the  newspaper 
remained  the  faithful  advocate  of  the  eternal  truths  of  human  liberty 
and  progress,  and  the  medium  of  truthful  news  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  it  was  a  great  public  blessing.  It  then  had  no  essential  con- 
nection with  the  publisher,  who  was  only  expected  to  have  a  talent 
for  the  organization  of  news-gathering,  and  the  editorial  columns 
were  open  to  the  most  learned  men  and  scholars  of  the  age  for  com- 
ments upon  all  new  discoveries,  reforms,  and  other  matters  of  public 
concern  ;  but  as  the  circulation  of  the  newspapers  extended,  —  partly 
owing  to  an  increased  desire  of  the  people  for  the  latest  news,  and 
partly  to  the  introduction  of  business  advertisements, —  and  as  their 
proprietors  thus  grew  rich  and  powerful,  it  occurred  to  them  to 
increase  their  power  by  making  the  newspaper  not  only  a  vehicle  for 
news,  but  also  for  partisan  comment  upon  all  questions.  This  was 
especially  notable  in  those  countries  that  encouraged  opposing  politi- 
cal parties,  like  France,  England,  and  the  United  States. 

Thus  the  owner  of  an  established  journal  would  increase  the  circu- 
lation of  his  paper  by  permitting  it  to  become  the  "organ"  of  a 
political  party,  or  some  ambitious  partisan  would  purchase  or  set  up 
a  newspaper  to  communicate  his  views  and  direct  the  judgment  and 
opinions  of  the  multitude  for  his  own  aggrandizement ;  both  parties 
accomplishing  their  objects  under  the  impersonal  name  and  character 
of  a  "Globe,"  "Post,"  "World,"  "Times,"  "Enquirer,"  "Ar- 
gus," etc. 

When  this  state  of  things  began  to  develop  itself,  the  issuing  of 
pamphlets,  wherein  important  political  questions  could  be  discussed 
in  a  thorough  and  statesmanlike  manner,  gradually  ceased,  and  in 
their  place  came  the  flippant,  abusive,  scurrilous,  and  irresponsible 
"  editorial,"  It  is  only  in  France  that  this  department  retained 
character  and  responsibility,  in  the  requirement  of  having  the  author's 
name  attached  to  every  article. 

In  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  however,  the  editorial  was 
used  to  a  great  extent  simply  as  a  party  instrument ;  and,  as  its  license 
grew  by  toleration,  became  soon  a  means  whereby  to  vent  all  the 


304  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

personal  favoritism  or  malice  which  the  proprietor  or  his  friends 
might  entertain  towards  any  one  of  any  party. 

The  inherent  love  of  scandal,  of  reading  vile  charges  against  a 
neighbor,  which  animates  all  base  characters,  lent  a  support  to  this 
department  of  the  newspaper,  and  in  course  of  time  made  it  a  promi- 
nent feature.  The  paper  now  was  read,  not  so  much  for  the  news 
it  contained  as  for  the  malice  of  its  editorials,  or  the  spitefulness  of 
its  local  paragraphs.  Private  life  became  grossly  and  indecently 
exposed  to  public  animadversion  in  the  press,  and  the  most  insig- 
nificant scribbler  of  items  usurped  the  power  to  make  a  sensitive 
person's  existence  insupportable,  and  to  destroy  the  best  man's  repu- 
tation by  continued  scurrilous  mention.  This  sort  of  newspaper 
poisoning  and  assassination  has  grown  so  common,  and  is  carried  on 
so  audaciously  by  mendacious,  blackmailing,  piratical  newspaper 
buccaneers,  that  nowadays  our  noblest  minds  and  best  scholars  shrink 
from  entrance  into  public  life  as  from  a  pest-house. 

Whenever  a  growing  despotism  or  monopoly  intends  to  usurp 
powers  that  are  granted  to  no  individual  person,  it  hides  its  serpent's 
coils  under  the  mask  of  an  assumed  impersonal  name.  The  editors 
of  this  class  of  newspapers  found  this  impersonal  feature  ready  at 
hand  in  the  title  of  their  organs.  This  feature  they  therefore  retained 
and  impressed  into  their  use.  It  was  no  longer  the  individual  Mr. 
A.  or  B.  who  uttered  an  opinion  upon  matters  modestly  over  his  own 
name,  but  an  impersonal  oracle,  a  "Mercury,"  or  "Sun,"  or  "In- 
dependent," that  thundered  forth  its  denunciations  with  the  tone  of 
an  inspired  prophet,  and  as  the  legitimate  and  recognized  expounder 
of  universal  public  opinion. 

The  unknown  always  excites  fear;  all  superstition  has  its  root  in, 
and  thrives  upon  this  cowardly  fear  of  the  unknown.  Now,  the  news- 
paper has  become,  in  its  worst  specimens,  very  similar  in  its  terz-ors 
to  such  an  unknown  power,  —  of  uttering,  in  grandiloquent  phrases, 
its  hurtful  praise,  its  ill-considered  judgments,  its  slanders  of  good 
men,  and  its  personal  malice. 

One  needs  but  to  turn  over  some  of  the  specimens  of  this  class  of 
papers  of  the  past,  and  glance  at  the  venomous  slanders  and  scandals 
raised  against  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Hamilton,  Paine, 
Adams,  Jackson,  Webster,  Calhoun,  Clay,  Benton,  and  others  of  our 
noblest  patriots,  to  realize  the  extent  of  shamelessness  to  which  this 
was  carried  on,  even  in  the  early  times  of  newspaper  development. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION  BY  THE  PRESS.  305 

Nor  was  there  any  redress;  for  if  any  outraged  person  appealed  to 
the  law  for  protection,  the  newspapers  of  this  class,  however  much 
opposed  to  each  other  ])efore,  straightway  combined  to  raise  a  hue 
and  cry  against  the  injured  man,  as  one  who  would  interfere  with  the 
"liberty  of  the  press!  " 

For  this  impersonal  title  of  "the  press  "  had  been  invented  and 
was  now  used  to  cover  the  multitudinous  impersonalities  of  all  news- 
papers whatsoever,  uniting  them,  for  popular  effect,  under  one  general 
organization,  claiming  immunity  from  all  control  of  the  law;  and  thus 
a  few  publishers  and  editors  of  that  class  —  few  in  comparison  with 
the  millions  of  other  citizens  —  were  gradually  allowed  to  usurp  a 
license  and  tyranny  which  has  become  one  of  the  most  distressing 
features  of  our  age.  Not  only  does  it  deter  the  wisest  and  purest 
men  of  our  nation  from  entering  into  public  life,  but  it  enables  den:ia- 
gogues  to  take  State  and  Federal  offices,  upon  pledges  that  they  will 
support  the  monopolists,  the  party,  and  "the  press." 

In  monarchical  countries  the  governments  no  sooner  became  aware 
of  the  despotism  of  "the  press"  than  they  hastened  to  check  it  by 
an  exercise  of  their  own  tyrannic  power,  either  by  suppressing  the 
newspapers  altogether,  or  by  establishing  a  censorship  over  them. 
As  a  further  protection,  they  have  frequently  established  official 
newspapers  of  their  own. 

But  in  our  country  the  worst  class  of  such  newspapers  have  had 
the  broadest  scope  for  mischief  imaginable;  each  party  organ  en- 
deavoring, to  the  best  of  its  ability,  to  misrepresent  the  actual  news, 
or  facts,  when  considered  adverse  to  its  own  interests  or  the  interests 
of  its  supporters,  and  imposing  upon  its  readers  by  the  assumption 
of  the  royal  "  We,"  as  if  it  were  the  sole  organ  of  "  the  press."  At 
the  same  time  the  indiscriminate  publication  of  all  sorts  of  so-called 
news,  consisting  chiefly  of  reports  of  immoral  fictions,  of  adulter}', 
seductions,  rapes,  robberies,  and  murders,  has  had  such  a  tendency 
to  deprave  the  minds  of  the  people,  brutalize  their  tastes,  familiarize 
them  with  crime,  and  confuse  their  moral  judgments,  as  to  excite  the 
liveliest  apprehensions  of  all  good  men,  parents,  and  guardians  con- 
cerning its  demoralizing  effects  upon  the  rising  generation. 

True,  there  have  been  at  all  times,  and  now  are,  many  noble 
exceptions  in  "the  press,"  just  as  there  are  among  the  mone}'^  and 
railway  despots ;  but  I  have  described  the  general  system  of  partisan 
publication,  it  being  the  object  of  this  work  to  expose  all  forms  of 

20 


8()()  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

despotism  and  monopoly,  and  their  principal  agencies,  under  what- 
ever cloak  they  may  try  to  hide  themselves. 

To  what  extent  the  evils  attendant  upon  this  form  of  abuse  of 
public  intercommunication  by  "the  press"  can  be  checked  and  pun- 
ished by  law,  is  a  question  that  desei-ves  the  most  serious  consideration 
of  every  friend  of  genuine  individual  freedom ;  for  only  by  its 
effective  check  can  each  individual  be  secured  in  that  sanctity  of 
private  life  which  to  most  people  is  of  the  most  inestimable  value. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  point  out  what  legal  methods  might  be 
employed,  and  these  historical  and  critical  remarks  have  been  made 
simply  with  a  view  to  introduce  to  public  consideration  an  important 
affirmative  duty  of  a  rational  State  organization.  I  may,  however, 
point  out  one  such  method:  a  means  which  is,  in  fact,  prescribed  by 
the  duty  of  perfecting  the  public  intercommunication  between  its 
<;itizens  by  the  publication  of  daily  official  newspapers,  so  as  to  fur- 
nish them  an  authentic  history  of  the  events  of  each  day,  without 
editorial  comments,  and  without  any  charge  or  expense  to  the 
citizens. 


CHAPTER   ITL 

A   DAILY   NATIONAL   NEWSPAPEE. 

It  is  the  duty  of  government  to  make  known  all  its  laws,  official 
and  judicial  decisions,  and  public  proceedings,  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment,  to  all  its  citizens,  since  no  one  should  be  required  to  obey 
laws  of  which  he  has  had  no  reasonable  opportunity  to  inform  him- 
self. And  when  the  government  assumes,  as  I  propose  it  should, 
control  of  all  the  methods  of  transmitting  news,  it  becomes  a  duty  for 
it  to  make  known  to  the  citizens  at  once  all  the  news  communicated 
from  any  part  of  the  world, 

Government  ought  not  to  leave  this  important  branch  of  intercom- 
munication to  private  citizens  or  monopolies,  whose  self-interest  or 
corrupt  motives  may  be  in  direct  opposition  to  the  welfare  of  the 
people ;  partly  for  its  own  sake,  since  it  is  primarily  interested  in  a 
continuous  and  reliable  transmission  of  news  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  partly  because  it  is  bound  to  protect  the  people  against 
false  information  or  imposition  on  matters  so  important  to  their  gen- 


INTERCOMMUNICATION   BY   THE   PRESS.  307 

eval  welfare.  Besides,  as  under  the  system  of  government  advanced 
in  this  work,  the  national  government  would  obtain  exclusive  and 
absolute  control  of  the  telegraph,  it  alone  could  guarantee  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  news  received  by  that  great  medium  of  transmitting 
information  ;  and  yet  it  could  do  this  vastly  cheaper  than  it  is  pos- 
sible to  do  it  under  the  present  system. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  should,  therefore,  establish 
a  daily  newspaper  publication,  by  means  of  which  to  make  known  to 
all  citizens:  firstly,  all  measures,  decisions,  laws,  proceedings,  and 
accounts  of  its  various  departments,  so  that  no  one  can  plead  igno- 
rance, of  their  existence  or  be  debarred  from  the  strictest  scrutiny 
into  their  nature  ;  and,  secondly,  all  the  news  that  may  be  transmitted 
b}'^  mail  or  telegraph  to  the  various  departments  of  the  government. 

By  such  a  daily  publication,  all  the  otfleial  acts  of  our  government 
and  of  foreign  governments  concerning  the  public  interests ;  all  stock 
quotations,  prices  of  products,  etc.  ;  each  new  financial  regulation ; 
every  change  in  the  money-issue ;  all  new  laws  made,  or  proposed  to 
be  made ;  all  acts,  decisions,  measures,  and  proceedings  of  the  vari- 
ous departments,  offices,  and  bureaus  ;  all  governmental  contracts ; 
all  accounts  of  expenses,  classified  for  publication  at  stated  intervals ; 
all  sales  of  public  lands,  of  property,  etc.  ;  all  patent-rights  granted, 
extended,  or  renewed  ;  all  advertisements  of  contracts ;  the  weekly 
imports  and  exports,  and  other  matters  appertaining  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  our  public  affairs,  would  be  accurately  communicated  to 
the  public  at  large  in  the  most  authentic  and  prompt  manner.  More- 
over, all  the  scientific  discoveries  of  the  universities,  academies  of 
science.  State  and  National  institutions,  etc.  ;  all  reports  of  weather, 
of  electric  and  magnetic  phenomena ;  of  scientific,  educational,  hygi- 
enic, and  commercial  news,  analytically  classified  and  indexed  at  stated 
periods,  would  thus  be  made  immediately  and  generally  known. 

This  daily  newspaper  would  thus  become,  of  necessity,  the  vehicle 
of  publishing  annual  official  statistics  for  the  whole  United  States. 
The  last  census  has  abundantly  shown  —  if  it  had  not  been  known 
before  —  that  a  ten-year  census  is  an  absurdity,  especially  for  a 
nation  so  growing  and  expansive  as  that  of  the  United  States.  We 
need  a  census  every  year ;  and  if  the  national  government  undertakes 
such  a  census,  the  several  States,  their  counties,  cities,  and  school- 
districts,  maybe  very  advantageously  relieved  of  a  useless  and  finan- 
cially oppressive  burden. 


308  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

Such  a  national  newspaper,  therefore,  in  addition  to  furnishing  the 
people  with  accurate  statements  of  all  news  and  events  transpiring  in 
the  world,  would  give  publicity  to  all  the  expenses,  income,  contracts, 
and  transactions  of  all  departments  of  the  government,  and  enable 
the  citizens  to  detect  all  errors,  extravagance,  and  defalcations  in 
official  statements  of  accounts,  whereby  the  present  alarming  frauds- 
perpetrated  on  all  sides  would  be  effectually  arrested  and  pre- 
vented. 

By  this  simple  measure  of  giving  the  public  full  knowledge  of  all 
official  operations,  and  three  months'  notice  of  all  new  laws  proposed 
to  be  presented  at  the  next  succeeding  session  of  Congress,  the  whole 
rotten  system  of  class  legislation,  moreover,  would  be  terminated, 
and  the  principal  causes  of  official  demoralization  removed.  Noi" 
would  judges  be  longer  kept  in  the  dark  for  months,  as  they  often 
are  now,  as  to  whether  or  not  certain  acts  of  Congress  have  been 
passed,  etc. 

In  like  manner,  each  State  and  populous  municipal  corporatioa 
should  have  a  daily  newspaper,  to  be  conducted  upon  similar  princi- 
ples and  forthe  same  objects,  without  any  editorial  comments.  It  is 
the  truth  the  people  want,  and  they  should  be  protected  from  the 
organized  mendacity  of  the  corrupt  portion  of  "the  press"  b}^  a 
truthful  publication  of  all  matters  of  public  concern,  so  that  they  may 
form  their  own  opinions,  and  examine  thoroughly  for  themselves  all 
questions,  accounts,  and  things  whatsoever  concerning  the  operations- 
of  the  State  and  Federal  governments. 

Such  a  system  of  official  publication  would  render  impossible  the 
occurrence  of  such  scenes  as  those  reported  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
United  States  Senate  a  few  years  ago,  during  which  Senator  Morrill 
submitted  the  following  as  a  substitute  for  the  resolution  of  Senator 
Davis :  -^— 

'■'■Mesolved,  That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  investigate 
the  finance  reports,  books,  and  accounts  of  the  treasury  department, 
particularly  the  reports  of  1869  to  1872,  inclusive,  to  ascertain 
whether  or  not  any  actual  differences  or  discrepancies  exist,  and  also 
whether  or  not  any  alterations  in  the  amounts  or  figui'es  have  been 
made,  and  report  the  facts  to  the  Senate  ;  and  that  said  committee 
shall  have  power  to  employ  a  stenographer  as  clerk,  who  shall  be  paid 
out  of  the  contingent  fund  of  the  Senate,  on  vouchers  approved  by 
the  committee." 


INTERCOMMUNJCATION    BY    TirE    PRESS.  309 

Senator  Davis  spoke  at  length,  and  in  closing  said  the  facts  and 
figures,  all  taken  from  the  official  reports,  clearly  establish  — 

1.  That  differences,  changes,  and  alterations  involving  millions  of 
dollars  have  been  made  in  the  annual  finance  reports,  after  being  offi- 
ciall}'  reported  to  Congress. 

2.  That  ex-Secretar3'  Bristow  and  the  Finance  Committee  admit 
that  they  were  made  between  the  years  1869  and  1871,  without  ex- 
planations, and  without  authority ;  and  the  reasons  for  making  them 
ought  to  be  known. 

3.  That  the  annual  finance  reports  to  Congi-ess  substantially  agree 
up  to  and  including  the  year  1868,  and  from  1871  to  the  present, 
as  to  the  public  debt,  expenditures,  and  the  receipts  of  the  govern- 
ment, but  between  these  years  they  differ  widely. 

4.  That  in  1870  the  register  of  the  treasury  was  directed  to  re- 
state the  public  debt  and  expenditures  from  the  year  1835  to  1870, 
according  to  a  statement  sent  him  from  the  secretary's  office,  and 
not  according  to  data  or  books  in  his  office. 

5.  That  between  the  years  1869  and  1871,  the  secretary's  new 
tables,  remodelling  the  public  debt' and  expenditures  of -the  govern- 
ment, first  appear  in  the  finance  report,  which  makes  these  changes 
and  alterations,  and  increases  the  public  debt  and  expenditures  more 
than  $100,000,000. 

This  one  fact  alone  speaks  volumes  in  favor  of  the  establishment 
of  an  official  newspaper  on  the  principle  suggested  by  me.  In  this, 
as  in  ever}'  other  instance  of  similar  enterprises  of  public  intercom- 
munication, it  would  soon  appear  that  a  government  of  the  people, 
working  for  the  people,  can  work  twice  and  three  times  as  cheap  as 
corporate  bodies  working  only  for  themselves,  and  only  with  a  view 
to  increase  dividends  on  "  watered"  stock. 


310  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 


POLICE,  PASSPOETS,  AWD  REGISTRATI0:N^. 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE   NECESSITY   OF  A  FEDERAL  POLICE. 

The  object  of  the  criminal  laws  of  the  State  is  to  secure  the  cit- 
izens against  fraud  and  violence,  by  providing  for  the  arrest  and 
punishment  of  offenders.  The  object  of  a  police  system  is  to  pre- 
vent the  fraud  or  violence  from  being  committed,  and  also  to  aid  in 
the  arrest  of  all  criminals.  It  is  far  more  important  to  the  welfare 
of  citizens  that  an  offender  should  be  prevented  from  committing  a 
crime  than  that  he  should  suffer  punishment  after  its  commission. 
Hence  the  purely  negative  code  must  be  aided  by  a  positive  one, 
establishing  such  regulations  as  may  be  necessary  to  render  the  com- 
mission of  offences  almost  impossible.  Such  a  positive  code  is  called 
police-law,  —  the  law  of  prevention. 

Every  well-regulated  State  is  therefore  bound  to  establish  such  a 
police-law,  and  organize  a  special  department  of  police,  passports, 
and  registration  to  carry  out  its  provisions.  In  proportion  as  this 
department  is  conducted  so  as  to  be  most  effective  and  least  oppres- 
sive, will  it  best  subserve  the  purposes  of  its  creation.  Its  very 
objects  require  it  to  be  exacting,  and  to  demand  from  all  citizens  an 
observance  and  ol:)edience  to  all  regulations  that  are  essential  to  carry 
out  its  purpose  to  prevent  crime.  For  men  cannot  penetrate  the 
Biotives  of  others,  or  foresee  the  designs  of  strangers  coming  into  a 
neighborhood,  unless  they  know  the  antecedents  of  such  strangers, 
their  residence,  occupation,  age,  name,  and  purposes.  For  this  reason 
the  police  must  be  empowered  to  ascertain  these  facts  and  verify 
them,  and  all  persons  should  be  required  to  submit  to  the  necessary 
precautionary  examination,  whether  they  have  any  criminal  intent  or 
not.  Such  a  thorough  police-department  is  particularly  necessary  la 
our  States.     Free  of  access  and  open  to  all  new-comers,  as  all  our 


POLICE,    PASSrOKTS,    AND    REGISTRATION.  oil 

counties  and  cities  are,  —  no  inquiry  being  anywhere  raised  as  to  the 
real  name,  character,  or  occupation  of  the  new  resident,  —  crime 
enjoys  here  unusual  advantages  and  immunities ;  and  not  only  are 
man}'  crimes  committed,  but  in  most  cases  the  criminals  escape  or  go 
unpunished.  On  the  other  hand,  tlie  individual  efforts  that  have 
been  made  to  prevent  and  punish  crime  b}'  the  organization  of  private 
police  corporations,  st3ded  "detective  agencies,"  have  but  too  gen - 
eralU'^  succeeded  in  defeating  the  pui-poses  for  whicli  they  wore 
created.  For,  being  under  no  control  of  the  government,  and  owing- 
no  reports  to  the  law,  their  whole  aim  and  object  has  been  to  make 
as  much  money  as  possible,  —  an  aim  and  object  utterly  incompatible 
with  the  conception  of  a  true  police-system.  This  has  worlvcd  great 
wrong  in  two  ways :  Firstl3%  it  has  led  to  the  vicious  habit  of  com- 
pounding felony  with  nearly  every  criminal  whose  position  in  life, 
adroitness,  and  extent  of  theft  made  this  the  most  profitable  arrange- 
ment; the  defaulter  or  robber  of  $300,000,  for  instance,  retaining 
$100,000,  and  restoring  $200,000  to  the  party  robbed,  wlio  is  rejoiced 
to  get  back  two-thirds  of  his  stolen  propert3%  even  though  lie  have  to 
pay,  sa3%  $50,000  of  it  to  the  detective  agency  that  so  cleverl}-  man- 
aged the  business.  Secondly,  it  has  led  to  the  extension  of  the  odious 
s^ystem  of  blackmailing,  beyond  an}'  limit  before  thought  possible. 
The  detective  agency,  being  purely  a  money-making  esta1)lishment, 
naturally  set  all  its  sharp  wits  to  work  to  discover  new  ways  of  mak- 
ing money  and  adding  to  the  dividends  of  the  detective  corporation. 
It  quickly  discovered  a  very  remunerative  way  of  this  sort,  in  settino- 
its  agents  to  pry  into  the  private  affairs  of  people ;  and  from  the 
scandal  thus  collected,  to  select  such  information  concernincr  shy  and 
easily  frightened  people  as  might  produce  large  rewards  if  the  publi- 
cation of  the  scandal  were  withheld. 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  organization  of  a  State  police  which  shall 
at  once  fulfil  its  functions  effectively,  and  yet  leave  to  the  individual 
unimpaired  freedom  under  the  law%  is  one  of  the  most  delicate  tasks 
intrusted  to  the  law-giver,  and  that  the  inherent  difficulty  of  the  task 
increases  under  a  republican  government.  Nevertheless,  we  have 
been  extremely  unsuccessful  in  our  establishment  of  a  police  system. 

Our  Federal  police  is,  in  point  of  fact,  merely  a  private  detective 
agency  for  revenue  and  postal  purposes,  having  all  the  odious  fea- 
tures of  secrecy  and  espionage  about  it  without  any  protection  to 
life  or  property,   and  lacking  all  the  essential  elements  of  proper 


312  LlBEllTV    AND    LAW. 

organization  and  supervision.  It  has  thus  become  open  to  the  most 
scandalous  abuses;  gangs  of  counterfeiters,  mail-robbers,  etc.,  noto- 
riously buying  off  detectives,  to  let  them  carry  on,  undenounced, 
their  criminal  occupations. 

The  States  themselves  have  no  police  system  at  all,  and  rely  alto- 
gether upon  private  or  municipal  corporations  to  do  that  which  is 
essentially  the  duty  of  the  State.  This  deficienc}^  leaves,  of  course, 
all  the  smaller  cities,  villages,  and  agricultural  districts  open  to  the 
unchecked  violence  and  villainy  of  the  thief,  robber,  and  murderer; 
for  only  large  cities  can  afford  police  forces,  and  private  police  corpo- 
rations find  it  profitable  to  carry  on  their  business  only  in  large  cities. 
Hence. the  terrible  crimes  in  the  country-  districts  that  so  often  startle 
the  communit}',  —  the  assassinations,  the  rapes,  the  railway  train 
robbei'ies,  the  horse-stealing,  that  surprise  us  where  one  would  least 
expect  them.  Such  horrible  tragedies  as  the  Benders  perpetrated  iu 
Kansas  —  wht)  came,  unknown,  settled  down  on  a  lonely  tract  of  land, 
and  built  upon  it  a  small  log  tavern,  butchering  almost  every  day 
some  unsuspecting  traveller  that  came  in  for  rest  or  refreshment  — 
should  not  be  possible  at  all  in  a  well-organized  State.  No  State  can 
possibly  protect  its  citizens  in  their  lives,  libert}',  and  propert}^  that 
thus  permits  ever^'body  to  settle  down  anywhere  without  knowledge 
of  their  real  names,  former  residence,  character,  or  occupation.  The 
issue  is  simpl3'this:  whether  we  shall  continue  to  expose  our  lives 
iind  property  to  constant  danger,  or  submit  to  some  slight  incon- 
veniences, that  are  absolutel}^  necessary  to  avert  that  danger. 

The  police  of  municipal  corporations,  finall}^  —  the  only  legal  police 
we  have,  — has  grown  up  in  such  an  uns3^stematic,  fragmentary  sort  of 
way  as  to  be  in  one  respect  singularly  inefficient,  and  in  another 
oppressive!}'  tyrannical.  It  has  neither  the  powers  it  ought  to  have, 
nor  is  it  debarred  from  exercising  the  powers  it  ouglit  not  to  have. 
Policemen  have  shot  down  —  brutally  murdered  —  men  simply  for 
not  obeying  their  call  to  halt ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  allow 
the  most  flagrant  vice  and  crime  to  advertise  their  trade  in  the  open 
streets.  Horse-cars,  omnibuses,  and  other  vehicles  run  over  and  kill 
hundreds  of  people  yearly  in  our  large  cities ;  other  hundreds  break 
their  limbs  or  necks  in  walking  public  streets  that  are  wholly  inse- 
cure ;  and  wild  cattle,  running  loose  or  driven  through  the  public 
thoroughfares  of  our  cities,  gore  men,  women,  and  cliildren  nearly 
ever}'^  day  ;  the  police  all  the  while  looking  on  uiiconcernedl}',  while 


POLICE,    TASSrOUTS,    AND    REGISTRATION.  313 

wasting  time  and  attention  by  making  raids  on  gambling-lionses  and 
dragging  the  lowest  classes  of  loafers  and  harlots  before  a  police 
magistrate  for  a  periodical  fine. 

To  remedy  this  state  of  affairs  it  will  be  absolutely  necessary  to 
establish  for  every  State  a  thorough  police-force,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  chief  department  specially  created  for  that  purpose.  This 
organization  should  have  its  representatives  in  every  township  of  the 
State,  in  every  village,  and  in  every  block  of  a  large  city,  all  in  con- 
stant rapport  with  each  other.  It  should  have  abundant  power  to 
cai-ry  out  its  objects,  and  yet  be  sufficiently  checked,  not  wantonly 
to  interfere  with  men's  lawful  rights  and  liberties. 

From  such  a  police  organization  all  features  of  secrecy  and  mys- 
tery should  be  strictly  excluded.  No  operation  of  the  State  should 
need  a  mask  or  require  concealment.  Tiie  State  has  an  absolute 
right  to  demand  of  each  citizen  his  name,  antecedents,  occupation, 
character,  and  residence.  It  is  an  utter  impossibilit}'  that  the  State 
should  be  able  to  meet  its  obligation  to  pj-olcct  every  citizen  unless 
this  right  is  conceded. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE   NECESSITY   OF   EEGISTRA'J^ION    AND   PASSPORTS. 

It  must,  therefore,  be  made  absolutel}^  impossible  that  an}^  person 
can  arrive  at  and  take  up  his  quarters  in  any  township  or  village,  or 
in  any  part  of  a  city,  unless  the  police  are  immediately  advised  of 
the  fact  of  his  arrival,  his  name,  residence,  occupation,  and  proposed 
destination.  If  it  is  found  necessary  that  a  system  of  passports  is 
indispensable  to  secure  this  object,  such  a  system  should  be  at  once 
introduced.  The  notion  of  passports  may  seem  very  objectionable 
to  us  nowadays ;  but  really,  when  calml}'  considered,  the  passpoi't 
system  does  not  infringe  on  our  individual  liberty  of  intercommuni- 
cation to  any  serious  extent,  while  it  certainly  affords  it  fuller  pro- 
tection than  could  be  realized  by  any  other  measure. 

Surely  ever^'  citizen  of  a  State  desires  freedom  to  go  to  any  part 
of  that  State,  and  be  protected  on  the  way  against  violence  and  fraud. 


314  LIBERTF   AND    LAW. 

But  bow  can  the  State  protect  him  when  its  police  are  unacquainted 
with  the  names,  occupations,  and  destinations  of  all  other  citizens 
with  whom  he  may  come  in  contact?  Hence  he  himself  and  all 
others  must  be  made  subject  to  some  measure  that  shall  effectually 
make  it  possible  for  the  State  to  obtain  that  knowledge  whenever 
needed,  and  no  measure  is  so  adequate  for  this  purpose  as  the  pass- 
port. 

If  the  name  "passport"  is  held  objectionable,  some  other  name  can 
easily  be  invented,  and  the  instrument  itself  can  be  rearranged,  with 
the  application  of  modern  science,  so  as  to  take  away  from  it  all  the 
features  that  formerh'  made  it  odious.  A  small  printed  card,  with 
the  photograph  on  one  side,  and  the  name,  occupation,  age,  and 
residence  of  the  owner,  leaving  the  necessar)^  blanks  to  be  filled,  on 
the  other  side,  and  the  seal  of  office  affixed,  with  the  date  of  issue, 
would  serve  all  purposes,  and  could  easily  be  secured  against  coun- 
terfeiting. 

Such  a  passport  system  can,  moreover,  be  very  readils'  combined 
with  the  existing  registration  system  for  voters,  making  the  latter  far 
more  adequate  to  subserve  its  purposes.  It  is  a  notorious  fact,  that 
under  the  present  system  of  registration  fraudulent  votes  are  cast  at 
ever}'  election.  People  vote  who  have  no  right  to  vote  ;  others  vote 
two,  three,  or  more  times  at  the  same  election ;  and  the  police  are 
powerless  to  prevent  the  outrage.  Nobody  knows  all  the  men  who 
offer  their  votes,  —  neither  their  name,  their  occupation,  nor  their 
residence. 

Under  such  a  sj'stem  as  I  propose,  it  would  be  impossible  for  the 
murderers,  house-burners,  forgers,  and  other  criminals  that  prey  upon 
society  to  carr}^  on  their  nefarious  trades  unperceived.  Nor  would 
such  a  system  of  passports  and  registration  allow  the  sudden  vanish- 
ing of  men  from  our  midst,  no  one  knowing  when,  where,  or  how  the}" 
vanish.  What  unknown,  dreadful  crimes  may  envelop  the  many 
inexplicable  sudden  disappearances  of  well-known  persons  from  the 
midst  of  their  friends !  A  few  years  ago  a  woman  was  found  dead 
in  her  house  in  New  York,  five  weeks  having  elapsed  since  her  death 
or  murder,  and  her  body  too  decomposed  to  show  whether  murder 
had  been  committed  or  not.  And  this  is  b}'  no  means  an  isolated 
occurrence.  Nearly  ever}^  week  we  read  of  mysterious  disappear- 
ances of  rich  or  influential  persons,  — abductions  of  women,  of  chil- 


POLICE,    PASSPORTS,    AND    REGISTRATION.  315 

dren,  — and  it  rarely  happens  that  those  mysteries  are  solved.  Ought 
such  occurrences  to  be  possible  under  proper  police  administra- 
tion ? 

What  carelessness,  again,  is- more  culpable  than  that  which  permits 
our  boats  and  ships  to  leave  their  harbors  without  rendering  a  full  list 
of  their  passengers  ?  How  many  families  linger  in  agony  when  the 
news  of  a  sliipwreck  is  borne  to  them,  and  no  list  of  the  ship's  pas- 
sengers can  be  obtained  anywhere.  How  many  persons  plunge  annu- 
ally from  our  steamboats  into  the  waters  of  our  rivers  and  lakes,  no 
one  knowing  their  name  or  residence !  How  man}'^  unknown  indi- 
viduals are  killed  annually  on  our  railroads,  no  railroad  company 
keeping  a  list  of  its  passengers,  their  names,  residences,  or  destina- 
tions ! 

A  well-considered  system  of  passports  and  registration  would 
speedily  put  an  end  to  this  state  of  things,  and  ampl}^  I'epaj'^,  b\^  the 
benefits  conferred  in  personal  security  of  ourselves,  our  friends,  and 
relatives,  for  the  first  slight  annoyances  it  might  give  occasion  to ; 
and  it  would  have  the  additional  advantage  of  protecting  every  holder 
of  such  a  passport  against  the  unjustifiable  annoyance  to  which  men 
are  subject  from  the  police  under  the  present  loose  system.  The  vio- 
lation of  the  rights  of  personal  liberty  and  security  in  one's  own  house 
against  police  entrance  and  search  would  no  longer  be  possible ;  and 
to  the  additional  security  conferred  would  thus  be  added  far  greater 
protection  against  unjustifiable,  illegal,  and  despotic  acts  of  the  pres- 
ent irresponsible  police  administrations  in  the  cities. 


CHAPTEE    in. 


THE  SUPEEIOKITY  OF  A  NATIONAL  POLICE  OVER  A  NATIONAL 

ARMY. 

There  is  one  other  consideration  which  ought  to  plead  strongly  for 
the  establishment  of  such  a  thorough  police-system  as  I  have  herein 
set  forth.  We  maintain  at  present,  at  a  large  expense,  a  Federal 
army  of  some  twenty-five  thousand  men.  The  following  are  the 
exact  figures :  — 


31(3  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Tlio  array  of  the  Unitecl  States,  on  the  15th  of  October,  1879,  con- 
sisted of  the  following  forces,  in  officers  and  men :  — 


Ten  cavalry  reginieiits 

Five  artillery  regiments 

Twentv-live  infantry  regiments 

Engineer    battalion,  reci-uiting   parties,  ordnance  depju'tment,  hospital 
service,  Indian  scouts.  West  Point,  and  general  service 


430 

278 
Sol 

608 


7,206 
2,387 
10,973 

3,696 


Total . 


The  amount  expended  on  the  army  for  the  year  1879  was  $40,- 
425,660.  Now,  for  all  the  purposes  of  an  army  this  body  of  men  is 
virtually  useless ;  and,  while  it  is  so  useless,  it  is  surrounded,  so  far 
as  the  privates  are  concerned,  by  an  atmosphere  of  degradation, 
which  still  further  increases  its  inefficiency.  It  is  a  notorious  fact, 
that  to  enter  the  United  States  army  as  a  private  is  considered  equiva- 
lent to  relinquishing  all  claim  to  social  respectability.  Hence,  while 
the  police  authorities  of  our  large  cities  can  command  the  services  of 
the  best  class  of  men  available  for  their  purposes,  the  United  States 
arm}^  must  be  content  with  the  poorest  material.  On  the  other 
hand,  though  it  may  seem  paradoxical,  there  is  a  strong  feeling 
amongst  the  American  people  of  jealousy  toward  the  United  States 
army,  —  a  feeling  which  also  tends  much  to  wards, increasing  its  ineffi- 
ciency. 

Now,  it  seems  to  me,  that  if  we  were  to  convert  our  army  into  a 
civil  police-force,  we  should  remove  that  jealousy  and  at  the  same 
time  eniiolile  the  service.  We  might  thus  secure  a  first-class  Federal 
police,  and  remove  that  anomaly  from  our  service,  a  militaiy  body 
of  men  not  subject  to  the  civil  law. 

There  are  three  duties  on  which  our  present  army  is  detailed  :  First, 
to  protect  our  Western  settlements  against  the  Indians  ;  second,  to 
watch  our  Southern  frontier  against  Mexican  raids ;  and,  third,  to  do 
garrison  duty  in  various  places,  where  they  may  be  readily  called 
upon  to  suppress  local  disturbances,  as  in  the  case  of  the  recent 
strikes.  For  all  three  purposes  a  police  force  would,  I  think,  be 
more  efficient  than  our  present  army  force  has  shown  itself  to  be, 
and  certainly  far  cheaper,  for  it  could  not  possibly  swallow  up  $40,- 
000,000. 

So  far  as  the  Indian  problem  is   concerned,  it  is  notorious,  that 


POLICE,    i'ASSrOKTS,    AND    REGISTRATION.  317 

the  army  has  singuhirly  failed  to  achieve  satisfactory  results.  Our 
dealings  with  the  Indians,  mainly  conducted  through  the  army, 
have  been  as  disgraceful  to  us  as  our  armed  conflicts  with  them 
have  been  disastrous  to  our  soldiers.  The  blood  of  those  soldiers 
has  been  shed  in  vain  on  the  lava-beds ;  their  bodies  lie  buried 
unavenged  under  the  green  prairie  sod ;  and,  worst  of  all,  the 
great  majority  of  the  American  people,  however  full  of  pity  for 
the  fallen  brave  of  their  own  race,  feel  in  their  conscience  bound 
to  acquit  the  Indians  of  unprovoked  aggression  in  these  slaughters. 
The  Indians  have  been  so  maltreated,  notoriously  so  badly  dealt 
with,  that  we  cannot  withhold  from  them  a  certain  sympathy.  Now, 
across  the  Canadian  border,  under  British  rule,  where  a  police  force 
regulates  Indian  affairs,  the}''  have  escaped  all  such  unfortunate  col- 
Usions,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  both  Indians  and  whites.  But  if 
our  neighbors,  the  Canadians,  find  a  police  system  sufficient  and  sat- 
isfactory in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians,  why  should  we  not  be 
able  to  do  the  same  ?  So  far  as  the  Mexican  border  is  concerned,  I 
see  also  no  objection  to  the  employment  of  a  pohce  instead  of  an 
army  force.  The  police  would,  of  course,  receive  a  military  train- 
ing, but  its  character  as  a  civil  organization,  under  the  control  of 
experienced  police-officers,  would  give  it  many  advantages  besides- 
those  already  mentioned,  in  dealing  with  the  desperadoes  of  the 
border,  and  remove  all  the  dangers  of  an  undesirable  war,  which  is  sa 
apt  to  be  the  result  of  a  collision  between  the  armed  troops  of  two 
neighboring  nations.  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  argue  against  the  pro- 
priety of  a  war  against  Mexico,  which  might  put  an  end  to  its  condi- 
tion of  chronic  anarch}^ ;  but  such  a  war  should  be  the  result  of  mature 
deliberation.  Indeed,  those  disturbances  on  the  Mexican  border  are 
so  clearly  in  the  nature  of  thieving  and  plundering  exploits,  that  they 
would  be  very  properly  consigned  to  a  police  force.  The  bands  that 
oro-anize  them  are  simply  robbers,  and  should  not  be  treated  as  the  con- 
stituents of  an  array.  By  treating  them  simply  as  criminals,  we  should 
avoid  at  the  same  time  possible  military  and  political  complications^ 
and  afford  to  our  settlers  on  this  side  of  the  border  a  better  protec- 
tion against  robbery  and  pillage  than  they  now  receive  from  our  army. 
Finally,  for  the  suppression  of  disturbances  in  the  interior,  of 
mob  rule  and  insurrection,  there  is  positively  no  other  remedy  than 
an  efficient  police,  aided  by  a  thorough  passport  and  registration 
system.     The  terrible  occurrences  of  the  "strikes  year,"  the  out- 


318  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

rages  committed  in  the  Pennsylvania  mining-districts,  as  well  as  the 
bandit  organizations  that  have  of  late  sprung  up  in  various  parts  of 
our  country,  and  with  unparallelled  boldness  and  success  have  plun- 
dered bank  vaults,  railwa}'  trains,  and  terrorized  various  sections  of 
our  country,  —  all  these  phenomena  of  a  community  suffering  still 
from  the  demoralization  attendant  upon  a  civil  war,  and  the  universal 
financial  distress  which  has  afflicted  us  ever  since  1873,  make  the 
establishment  of  such  municipal,  State,  and  National  police  bodies  as 
I  have  herein  suggested  an  absolute  necessity  of  the  times. 

That  this  problem  of  securing  complete  protection  against  internal 
disturbances  cannot  be  attained  by  our  army  over  so  vast  an  extent 
of  countrj'^  as  that  of  the  United  States  has  been  abundantly  shown, 
ever  since  those  disturbances  have  become  one  of  the  features  of  our 
times.  Nor  are  armed  troops  likely  to  be  ever  effective  in  securing 
the  purity  of  elections,  owing  to  the  jealousy  of  the  American  people, 
which  is  ever  aroused  by  military  interference  at  the  polls.  In  fact, 
the  same  jealousy  is  manifested  by  the  people  of  Great  Britain  when- 
ever the  soldiers  are  called  out  by  the  government  to  suppress  a  riot, 
or  even  to  keep  order  at  a  strike  ;  and  even  in  soldier-ridden  Germany, 
as  well  as  in  France,  this  feeling  towards  the  standing  army  is  happily 
beginning  to  take  root. 

There  is  no  alternative,  therefore,  if  peace  is  to  be  preserved.  "We 
must  have  an  organized  police-force,  municipal,  State,  and  National, 
obedient  under  civil  legislation,  but  always  ready,  not  only  to  cause 
crime  to  be  punished,  but  also  to  detect  plans  for  the  commission  of 
crime,  and  to  prevent  their  execution.  Such  a  police  might  be 
efficiently  supported  by  a  number  of  picked  men  in  every  county  in 
the  country,  and  every  ward  of  a  city,  upon  whom  the  regular  police- 
force  could  call  in  emergencies  for  assistance.  Tliis  would  lend 
additional  authority  to  the  police,  and  take  away  from  them  those 
obnoxious  features  that  must  accompany  every  police-system. 

In  the  chapter  on  Schools,  it  will  have  been  seen  that  I  have  further 
provided  for  the  efficiency  of  such  a  police  registration  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  military  schools,  which  would  provide  an  efficient  army 
at  a  moment's  notice,  in  case  it  should  ever  be  necessary  to  create 
one.  The  naval  department  would,  of  course,  have  to  continue, 
though  the  abolition  of  the  tariff  would  make  cruising  for  smugglers 
unnecessary.  But  our  present  military  organization  might  very  well  be 
dispensed  with,  if  the  propositions  herein  advanced  are  duly  carried  out. 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  319 


CAPITAL    AISTD    LABOE;    OR,    THE    RICH 
AI^D    THE    POOR. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ANALYSIS   OF   THE   CONFLICT. 

I  place  these  words  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  not  because  they 
fitly  express  the  idea  which  underlies  them,  but  because  they  have 
been  sanctioned  by  usage  to  illustrate  the  most  perplexing  social 
question  that  has  agitated  mankind  since  its  primitive  historical  exist- 
ence. 

Capital  and  labor,  as  such,  are  not  two  opposite  ideas,  expressive 
of  two  antagonistic  factors  of  human  life  ;  for  labor  is  also  capital,  in 
that  it  has  the  power  to  accomplish  the  same  ends.  Capital  purchases 
commodities,  and  labor  purchases  commodities.  Capital  procures 
labor,  and  labor  procures  capital ;  and  therewith,  perchance,  new 
labor.  In  so  far,  therefore,  both  of  these  elements  of  life  are  inter- 
changeable, and  their  common  exponent  is  money,  as  the  universal 
purchasing-agency.  When  we  say  of  a  man,  that  he  has  capital,  we 
really  mean,  that  he  has  wealth,  — be  it  in  the  nature  of  money,  or  of 
houses,  farms,  cattle,  bonds,  or  any  other  means  whereby  he  can 
purchase  whatever  commodities  he  desires  to  possess,  to  the  extent  of 
that  wealth.  But  labor  accomplishes  the  same  end,  and  is  just  as 
much  and  in  the  same  meaning  a  purchasing-agency,  or  medium  of 
commercial  and  business  interchange.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  cap- 
ital and  labor  are  opposites  in  this :  that  the  one  agency  can  accom- 
plish more  than  the  other.  At  least,  this  does  not  hold  good  as  a 
general  proposition. 

It  is  true,  that  some  kinds  of  labor  command  only  a  very  small 
amount  of  purchasing-power;  let  us  say,  for  instance,  in  order  to 
fix  a  measure,  only  to  the  extent  of  S300  per  annum.  But  there  is 
also  many  a  kind  of  capital  that  can  do  no  more.     Other  kinds  of 


320  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

labor  may  be  able  to  purchase  §10,000  or  $50,000  per  annum,  in  the 
same  way  as  other  kinds  of  capital  can  so  purcliase. 

The  distinction  made  in  this  respect  between  capital  and  labor  is 
therefore  a  purely  fictitious  one,  and  not  at  all  of  a  qualitative  kind ; 
nor  is  it  either,  generally  speaking,  of  a  quantitative  character.  The 
words  simply  do  not  at  all  express  what  they  were  meant  to  express ; 
and  are  chosen  by  me,  as  I  suid  before,  only  because  they  are  of 
common  usage  as  representing  an  altogether  different  idea.  What 
people  really  do  mean  when  they  speak  of  a  conflict  between  capital 
and  labor  is,  a  conflict  between  the  rich  and  the  poor. 

But  who,  then,  are  the  rich  and  the  poor?  Whence  comes  this 
peculiar  distinction  between  men,  —  a  distinction  neither  physical, 
mental,  nor  moral,  but  entirely  uni(iue ;  and  what  gives  rise  to  that 
conflict,  —  a  conflict  which,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  invari- 
ably begins  on  the  part  of  the  poor? 

This,  indeed,  is  apparent  from  the  simple  fact  that  the  terms 
"capital"  and  "labor,"  as  signifying  such  opposition,  are  of  purely 
modern  use ;  whilst  the  conflict  which  they  typify  —  between  rich 
and  poor  —  is  as  old  as  the  historical  world. 

Those  terms,  "Capital"  and  "Labor,"  are  indeed  mere  arbitrary 
generahzations,  invented  to  hide  the  reality, — humbugs  to  delude 
the  masses.  Let  it,  then,  be  clearly  understood  that  the  expression, 
"  Conflict  between  Capital  and  Labor,"  when  thus  used,  means  simply 
the  world-historical  struggle  between  the  Rich  and  the  Poor;  the 
solution  of  which  through  a  peaceful  reconciliation  is  imperatively 
demanded  by  the  social  condition  of  the  modern  world,  and  consti- 
tutes what  is  nowadays  called  the  "  social  question." 


CHAPTER    n. 

HISTORICAL  ORIGIN  OF  THE   CONFLICT. 

1 

In  modern  times  this  question  was  inaugurated  by  Rousseau ;  car- 
ried into  practice  by  the  men  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  in  a  common- 
sense  way  it  was  expounded  by  Adam  Smith ;  and  philosophically, 
finally,  it  was  elaborated  by  Kant  and  Fichte. 

The  present  expounders  of  this  question  are  almost  all  of  European 


CAriTAL    AND    LABOR.  321 

origin  and  residence ;  and  their  head-centre,  Mr.  Marx,  is  a  German 
Jew,  residing  at  London.  It  is  not  unwortliy  of  remark,  by  the  by,. 
that  all  the  prominent  Jewish  politicians  —  Lasker  in  Germany,  Gam- 
betta  in  France,  and  Castelar  in  Spain,  amongst  others  —  are  strong 
advocates  of  Socialism,  though  not  exactly  of  Communism. 

Nor  is  it  proper  to  call  this  "  conflict  between  capital  and  labor  " 
one  of  the  workingraen  against  their  employers,  as  has  been  of  late 
the  habit  to  characterize  it.  This,  also,  is  a  perversion  of  facts,  put 
forward  solely  to  mislead  the  people.  There  does  not  exist,  and  there 
never  has  existed  amongst  men  a  distinctive  class  of  workingmen. 
Properly  speaking,  all  men  are,  more  or  less,  workingmen,  however 
the  nature  of  their  work  may  differ.  But  even  if  we  confine  the  terms 
"  workingmen  "  and  "  laborers  "  to  those  who  earn  their  living  exclu- 
sively by  manual  labor,  we  shall  find  that  the  men  who  have  made, 
and  still  make  themselves  most  conspicuous  in  defining  the  social 
conflict  of  the  present  time  as  one  between  workingmen  and  their 
employers,  invariably  narrow  it  down  to  the  workingmen  of  cities, 
and  jealously  exclude  from  their  ranks  the  workingmen  of  our  broad 
prairies  and  extensive  forests. 

The  origin  and  nature  of  this  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  work- 
ingmen of  the  cities  against  the  agricultural  laborers  I  shall  now 
explain. 

In  his  celebrated  work,  "  The  History  of  the  Working  and  Burgher 
Classes,"  M.  De  Cassagnac  says  that,  "taking  history  at  all  its 
sources,  we  have  found  niuiierous,  deep,  conspicuous,  and  unexcep- 
tional)le  traces  of  two  classes  of  men,  who  have  universally,  in  all 
countries,  abounded  in  the  commencement  of  all  societies.  One  of 
these  classes  were  masters,  the  other  slaves,  — the  first  o ion,  the  second 
are  owned. ''^ 

But  M.  De  Cassagnac.  like  most  of  his  countrymen,  when  ti-eating 
of  the  philosophical  order  of  things  in  history,  prefers  generalization 
to  the  narration  of  actual  facts. 

Historically,  it  appears  rather  that,  primitively,  men  lived  in  a  state 
of  perfect  equality,  as  nomads.  This  mode  of  life  is  still  extant 
amongst  our  Indians,  the  Esquimaux,  and  several  other  uncivilized 
tribes.  From  this  nomadic  life,  or  along  with  it,  came  the  pastoral ; 
and  then  arose  the  life  of  agriculture,  a  mode  of  life  wherein  there  was 


'  Duff  Green's  translation. 

21 


322  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

also  perfect  equality,  and  wherein  there  never  entered  such  a  state  of 
things  as  hostility  between  employers  and  laborers.  This  was  the 
patriarchal  period  of  history,  and  is  also  still  extant-;  as,  for  instance, 
in  our  unorganized  Territories,  and  indeed  wherever  civilized  men 
Jive  together  without  having  yet  established  a  common  government. 
Each  individual,  with  the  consent  of  his  tribe,  chose  for  himself  a 
tract  of  land,  either  for  the  purpose  of  tilling  it  and  raising  grain 
tliereon,  or  with  a  view  to  raising  large  herds  of  cattle.  This 
state  of  society  gave  preeminence  to  the  institution  of  the  family, 
which,  in  nomadic  life,  had  always  remained  more  or  less  un- 
settled. The  cultivator  of  the  soil  was  naturally  interested  in 
raising  a  large  family  of  sons  and  daughters,  upon  whose  volun- 
tary assistance  he  could  rely  permanently,  or  at  least  until  such 
time  as  they  should  themselves  become  the  heads  of  famihes.  When 
this  occurred,  their  past  voluntary  service  was  rewarded  by  a  proper 
dower  or  advancement.  Here  then,  also,  there  could  be  no  conflict 
between  capital  and  labor,  or  employer  and  employee,  except  in  the 
rare  cases  where  children  might  express  dissatisfaction  with  their 
share  of  the  paternal  allotment.  This,  however,  partook  always 
more  of  the  nature  of  a  family  feud,  and  was  a  feeling  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  causes  the  social  agitation  of  modern  times. 

But  alongside  of  the  soil-tillers  we  find  gradually  growing  up  another 
class  of  men,  gathering  together  and  erecting  dwellings  in  close  vicin- 
ity to  each  other,  and  building  walls  around  these  dwelHngs  for  com- 
mon protection,— the  builders  of  cities,  of  whom  we  find  separate 
mention  made  in  every  ancient  historical  account.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
that,  together  with  these  city-builders,  we  find  also  mention  made  of 
the  malleability  of  iron  and  other  metals ;  in  other  words,  the  growth 
of  cities  and  the  development  of  the  mechanical  arts  went  hand-in- 
hand,  and  from  this  growth  and  this  development  first  arose  the  dis- 
tinction between  employer  and  workingman,  using  the  latter  term  in 
the  meaning  attributed  to  it  by  modern  agitators, — that  is,  a  me- 
chanic, as  distinguished  from  an  agricultural  laborer. 

Another  step:  The  nomads  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  establish 
an  interchange  of  commodities,  since  they  found  ready  at  hand  all 
the  necessaries  of  their  lives  in  the  game  and  the  wild  fruits  of  the 
fields.  The  patriarchs  provided  all  their  wants  from  their  flocks  and 
herds  and  the  lands  which  they  cultivated.  But  matters  stood  differ- 
ently with  the  mechanics  of  the  cities :  the  blacksmith's  iron  furnished 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  323 

him  neither  foad  nor  raiment ;  wood  might  enable  the  carpenter  to 
build  his  house  and  make  his  furniture,  but  could  help  him  no  further  ; 
and  brickmakers  were,  in  this  respect,  as  helpless  as  blacksmiths  and 
carpenters.  A  mechanic,  of  whatever  profession,  was  thus  depend- 
ent upon  the  soil-tiller  for  his  food  and  clothing ;  and  as  the  soil-tillers 
soon  learned  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  labor  of  the 
mechanics,  there  sprung  up  between  these  two  classes  of  laborers  an 
interchange  of  commodities,  which,  in  its  first  rude  stage,  was  a 
direct  interchange  of  articles,  —  a  plow,  for  instance,  in  exchange  for 
so  many  measures  of  corn,  — but  which  gradually  became  an  indirect 
exchange  b}^  means  of  money,  the  invention  of  the  men  who  under- 
took the  control  of  this  indirect  exchange,  —  middle-men,  or  mer- 
chants and  brokers,  —  and  which  gradually'  became  the  instrument  of 
the  most  degrading  slavery  amongst  men,  by  making  that  anomalous 
distinction  between  rich  and  poor,  alluded  to  before,  possible. 

It  is  curious  to  note  the  singularit}'  of  this  money-distinction,  or 
money-slaverj^  between  men.  Their  political  inequality  —  that  be- 
tween master  and  slave,  king  and  subject,  voter  and  non- voter  —  is 
easil}^  enough  accounted  for,  originating  as  it  does  in  brute  force  ; 
and  it  is  also  easily  enough  done  away  with  by  the  same  agency,  — 
brute  force,  or  revolution.  Their  mental  or  intellectual  inequality 
is  also  easily  removed  by  universal  public  education  ;  but  no  human 
mind  has  as  yet  contrived  means  to  deliver  mankind  from  the  unre- 
lenting tyrann}'  of  the  money-power ;  or,  in  other  words,  radically'  to 
solve  the  irrepressible  conflict  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  (capital 
and  labor). 


CHAP  TEE    in. 


ATTEMPTED  PEACTICAL  SOLUTION  OF  THE  CONFLICT  — THE  SO- 
CIALISTIC GOVERNMENT  OF  ANCIENT  PERU  AND  THE  JESUIT 
GOVERNMENT   OF  PARAGUAY. 

A  practical  solution  was,  however,  at  one  time  of  human  histor}-, 
not  only  attempted,  but  carried  out  for  nearly  seven  centuries,  with 
the  most  admirable  results.  I  allude  to  the  government  of  ancient 
Peru,  under  the  rule  of  the  Incas,  whereby  a  civilization  was  estab- 
lished, the  beneficial  humanitarian  results  of  which  have  excited  the 


324  LIBERTY    AKD    LAW. 

admiration  of  all  subsequent  ages,  and  which  might  have  lasted  to 
this  day  had  not  the  cruel,  barbarous  civilization  of  the  Spanish  con- 
questadores  put  a  violent  end  to  it. 

I  hope  my  readers  will  not  consider  it  amiss  if  I  here  go  out  of  my 
way  to  mention  some  salient  points  of  that  unique  form  of  govern- 
ment, using  the  language  of  one  of  our  greatest  historians,  Prescott,. 
Its  impartial  chronicler:  — 

"  The  whole  territory  of  the  empire  was  divided  into  three  parts,  — 
one  for  the  Sun,  for  religious  worship,  another  for  the  Inca,  and  the 
last  for  the  people.  Which  of  the  three  was  the  largest  is  doubtful. 
The  proportions  differed  materially  in  different  provinces.  The  dis- 
tribution, indeed,  was  made  on  the  same  general  principle,  as  each 
new  conquest  was  added  to  the  monarchy ;  but  the  proportion  varied 
according  to  the  amount  of  population,  and  the  greater  or  less 
amount  of  land  consequently  required  for  the  support  of  the  inhab- 
itants. 

"The  lands  assigned  to  the  Sun  (religious  worship)  furnished  a 
revenue  to  support  the  temples  and  maintain  the  costly  ceremonial 
of  the  Peruvian  worship  and  the  multitudinous  priesthood. 

"  Those  reserved  for  the  Inca  went  to  support  the  royal  state,  as- 
well  as  the  numerous  members  of  his  household  and  his  kindred,  and 
supplied  the  various  exigencies  of  government.  The  remainder  of 
the  land  was  divided,  per  capila,  in  equal  shares  among  the  people. 
It  was  provided  by  law,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  that  every  Peru- 
vian should  marry  at  a  certain  age.  When  this  event  took  place,  the 
community  or  district  in  which  he  lived  furnished  him  with  a  dwell- 
ing, which,  as  it  was  constructed  of  humble  materials,  was  done  at 
little  cost.  A  lot  of  land  was  then  assigned  to  him  sufficient  for  his 
own  maintenance  and  that  of  his  wife.  An  additional  portion  was 
granted  for  every  child,  the  amount  allowed  for  a  son  being  the 
double  of  that  for  a  daughter.  The  division  of  the  soil  was  renewed 
ever}'  year,  and  the  possessions  of  the  tenant  were  increased  or 
diminished  according  to  the  numbers  in  his  famil}'.  The  same  ar- 
rangement was  observed  with  reference  to  the  curacas  (officials), 
except  only  that  a  domain  was  assigned  to  them  corresponding  with 
the  superior  dignity  of  their  stations."     *     *     * 

To  keep  alive  the  love  of  a  homestead  under  such  a  system,  it 
was  further  provided,  as  Prescott  says,  that  "  not  only  should  the 
lease,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  terminate  with  the  year,  but  during  that 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  325 

period  the  tenant  had  no  power  to  aUenate  or  to  add  to  his  pos- 
sessions. Tlie  end  of  tlie  brief  term  found  him  in  precisely  the 
same  condition  that  he  was  in  at  the  beginning.  Such  a  state  of 
things  might  be  supposed  to  be  fatal  to  anything  like  attachment 
to  tlie  soil,  or  to  that  desire  of  improving  it  which  is  natural  to 
the  permanent  proprietor,  and  hardly  less  so  to  the  holder  of  a  long 
lease.  But  the  practical  operation  of  the  law  seems  to  have  been 
•otherwise ;  and  it  is  probable  that,  under  the  influence  of  that  love 
of  order  and  aversion  to  change  which  marked  the  Peruvian  institu- 
tion, each  new  partition  of  the  soil  usually  confirmed  the  occupant  in 
his  possession,  and  the  tenant  for  a  year  was  converted  into  a  pro- 
prietor for  life." 

The  mode  of  cultivating  the  soil  under  this  system  Prescott  de- 
■scribes  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  territory  was  cultivated  wholly  by  the  people.  The  lands 
belonging  to  the  Sun  were  first  attended  to.  They  next  tilled  the 
lands  of  the  old,  of  the  sick,  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  and 
•of  soldiers  engaged  in  actual  service ;  in  short,  of  all  that  part  of 
the  community  who,  from  bodil}^  infirmity  or  any  other  cause,  were 
xmable  to  attend  to  his  own  concerns.  The  people  were  then  allowed 
to  work  on  their  own  ground,  each  man  for  himself,  but  with  the  gen- 
eral obligation  to  assist  his  neighbor  when  an3^  circumstance  —  the 
burden  of  a  young  and  numerous  family,  for  example  — might  de- 
mand it.  Lastly,  they  cultivated  the  lands  of  the  Inca.  This  was 
done  with  great  ceremony,  by  the  whole  population  in  a  body.  At 
break  of  day,  they  were  summoned  together  by  proclamation  from 
some  neighboring  tower  or  eminence,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
district  —  men,  women,  and  children  —  appeared  dressed  in  their  ga}'- 
est  apparel,  bedecked  with  their  little  store  of  finery  and  ornaments, 
as  if  for  some  great  jubilee.  They  went  through  the  labors  of  the 
day  with  the  same  joyous  spirit,  chanting  their  popular  ballads,  which 
<;ommemorated  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  Incas,  regulating  their  move- 
ments by  the  measure  of  the  chant,  and  all  mingling  in  the  chorus,  of 
which  the  word  haillii,  or  'triumph,'  was  usually  the  burden." 

The  material  for  their  clothing,  which  was  furnished  by  the  large 
herds  of  llamas,  was  thus  obtained  and  distributed  amongst  the 
people :  — 

"At  the  appointed  season  they  were  all  sheared,  and  the  wool  was 
deposited  in  the  public  magazines.     It  was  then  dealt  out  to  each 


326  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

family  in  such  quantities  as  sufficed  for  its  wants,  and  was  consigned 
to  tlie  female  part  of  the  household,  who  were  well  instructed  in  the 
business  of  spinning  and  weaving.  When  this  labor  was  accom- 
l)lis!ied,  and  the  family  was  provided  with  a  coarse  but  warm  cover- 
ing, suited  to  the  cold  climate  of  the  mountains,  —for  in  the  lower 
country,  cotton  furnished  in  like  manner  by  the  crown  took  the 
place,  to  a  certain  extent,  of  wool,  — the  people  were  required  to  labor 
for  the  Inca.  The  quantity  of  the  cloth  needed,  as  well  as  the  pecu- 
liar kind  and  quality  of  the  fabric,  was  first  determined  at  Cuzco. 
The  work  was  then  apportioned  among  the  different  provinces.  Offi- 
cers, appointed  for  the  purpose,  superintended  the  distribution  of  the 
wool,  so  that  the  manufacture  of  the  different  articles  should  be 
intrusted  to  the  most  competent  hands.  They  did  not  leave  the 
matter  here,  but  entered  the  dwelUngs  from  time  to  time  and  saw 
that  tlie  work  was  faithfully  executed.  This  domestic  inquisition 
was  not  confined  to  the  labors  for  the  Inca.  It  included  also  those 
for  the  several  families ;  and  care  was  taken  that  each  household 
should  employ  the  materials  furnished  for  its  own  use  in  the  manner 
that  was  intended,  so  that  no  one  should  be  unprovided  with  neces- 
sary apparel.  In  this  domestic  labor  all  the  female  part  of  the  estab- 
lishment was  expected  to  join.  Occupation  was  found  for  all,  from 
the  child  five  years  old  to  the  aged  matron  not  too  infirm  to  hold  a 
distaff.  No  one  —  at  least,  none  but  the  decrepit  and  the  sick  — 
was  allowed  to  eat  the  bread  of  idleness  in  Peru.  Idleness  was  a 
crime  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  and  as  such  severely  punished  ;  while 
industry  was  publicly  commended  and  stimulated  by  rewards." 

la  regard  to  that  class  of  people  who  attended  to  the  mechanical 
arts,  Prescott  informs  us :  — 

"All  the  mines  in  the  kingdom  belonged  to  the  Inca;  they  were 
wrought  exclusively  for  his  benefit,  by  persons  familiar  with  this  ser- 
vice, and  selected  from  the  districts  where  the  mines  were  situated. 
Every  Peruvian  of  the  lower  class  was  a  husbandman,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  those  already  specified,  was  expected  to  provide  for  his 
own  support  Ijy  the  cultivation  of  his  land.  A  small  portion  of  the 
communitv,  however,  was  instructed  in  mechanical  arts,  some  of 
them  of  the  more  elegant  kind,  subservient  to  the  purposes  of  luxury 
and  ornaments.  The  demand  for  these  was  chiefly  limited  to  the 
sovereign  and  his  court ;  but  the  labor  of  a  larger  number  of  hands 
was  exacted  for  the  execution  of  the  great  pubUc  works  which  covered 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  327 

the  land.  The  nature  and  amount  of  the  services  required  were  all  de- 
termined at  Cuzco,  by  commissioners  well  instructed  in  the  resources 
of  the  country  and  in  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  different 
provinces."     *     *     * 

Thus  we  see  that  "the  different  provinces  of  the  country  furnished 
persons  peculiarly  suited  to  different  employments,  which,  as  we  shall 
see  hereafter,  usually  descended  from  father  to  son.  Thus,  one  dis- 
trict supplied  those  most  skilled  in  working  the  mines,  another  the  most 
curious  workers  in  metals  or  in  wood,  and  so  on.  The  artisan  was 
provided  by  the  government  with  the  materials,  and  no  one  was  re- 
quired to  give  more  than  a  stipulated  portion  of  his  time  to  the  public. 
He  was  then  succeeded  by  another  for  the  Hke  term  ;  and  it  should 
be  observed  that  all  who  were  engaged  in  the  employment  of  the  gov- 
ernment—  and  the  remark  applies  equally  to  agricultural  labor  — 
were  maintained  for  the  time  at  the  public  expense.  By  this  constant 
rotation  of  labor,  if  was  intended  tiiat  no  one  should  be  overbur- 
dened, and  that  each  man  should  have  time  to  provide  for  the  de- 
mands of  his  own  household.  It  was  impossible,  in  the  judgment 
of  a  high  Spanish  authority,  to  improve  on  the  S3^stem  of  distribu- 
tion, so  carefully  was  it  accommodated  to  the  condition  and  comfort 
of  the  artisan.  The  security  of  the  working  classes  seems  to  have 
been  ever  kept  in  view  in  the  regulation  of  the  government,  and  these 
w^ere  so  discreetl}^  arranged  that  the  most  wearing  and  unwholesome 
labors  —  as  those  of  the  mines  —  occasioned  no  detriment  to  the 
health  of  the  laborer ;  a  striking  contrast  to  his  subsequent  condition 
under  the  Spanish  rule." 

Tbe  noble  system  of  "cornering"  on  wheat,  meat,  corn.  gold. 
silver,  opium,  or  quinine,  so  thoroughly  cultivated  under  our  modern 
money-system,  was  entirely  unknown  in  ancient  Peru.  The  wa}'^  the 
Incas  managed  was  thus:  — 

"A  part  of  the  agricultural  produce  and  manufactui-es  were  trans- 
ported to  Cuzco,  to  minister  to  the  immediate  demands  of  the  Iiica 
and  his  court.  But  far  the  greater  part  was  stored  in  magazines 
scattered  over  the  different  provinces.  These  spacious  buildings^ 
constructed  of  stone,  were  divided  between  the  Sun'  and  the  Inca, 
though  the  greater  share  seems  to  have  been  appropriated  by  the 
monarch.  By  a  wise  regulation,  any  deficiency  in  the  contributions 
of  the  Inca  might  be  supplied  from  the  granaries  of  the  Sun.  But 
such  a  necessitj'^  could  rarely  have  happened ;  and  the  providence  of 


328  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

1lie  provernment  usually  left  a  large  surplus  in  the  royal  depositories, 
wliich  was  removed  to  a  third  class  of  magazines,  whose  design  was 
to  supply  the  people  in  seasons  of  scarcity,  and,  occasionally,  to  fur- 
nish relief  to  individuals  whom  sickness  or  misfortune  had  reduced  to 
poverty ;  thus,  in  a  manner,  justifying  the  assertion  of  a  Castilian 
document,  that  a  large  portion  of  the  revenues  of  the  Inca  found  its 
way  back  again,  through  one  channel  or  another,  into  the  hands  of 
the  people.  These  magazines  were  found  by  the  Spaniards,  on  their 
arrival,  stored  with  all  the  various  products  and  manufactures  of  the 
countrj',  —  with  maize,  cocoa,  qninvci,  woollen  and  cotton  stuffs  of  the 
finest  quality,  with  vases  and  utensils  of  gold,  silver,  and  copper;  in 
short,  with  everj'  article  of  luxury  or  use  within  the  compass  of  Peru- 
vian skill.  The  magazines  of  grain,  in  particular,  would  frequently 
liave  sufficed  for  the  consumption  of  the  adjoining  district  for  several 
years.  An  inventory  of  the  various  products  of  the  country,  and  the 
quarters  whence  they  were  obtained,  was  every  year  taken  by  the 
royal  officers  and  recorded  by  the  quipucamayus  on  their  registers 
with  surprising  regularity  and  precision.  These  registers  were  trans- 
mitted to  the  capital  and  submitted  to  the  Inca,  who  could  thus  at  a 
glance,  as  it  wei'e,  embrace  the  whole  results  of  the  national  industry, 
and  see  how  far  they  corresponded  with  the  requisitions  of  govern- 
ment." 

And  how  was  it  possible  to  establish  and  maintain  such  an  admira 
ble  system  of  socialistic  government?  Simply  because  the  Peruvians, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  richest  gold  and  silver  lands  of  the  world,  used 
no  money  at  all  in  their  intercourse  with  each  other,  but  emploj'ed 
those  metals  only  for  ornament.  Thus  the  distinction  between  rich 
and  poor,  which  I  have  traced  as  originating  in  the  invention  of 
money,  was  utterh'^  unknown  to  them.  This  led  to  the  most  bene- 
ficial results  for  the  people  at  large.     Says  Prescott:  — 

"If  no  man  could  become  rich  in  Peru,  no  man  could  become 
poor.  No  spendthrift  could  waste  his  substance  in  riotous  luxury. 
No  adventurous  schemer  could  impoverish  his  family  by  the  spirit  of 
,si)e('ulation.  Tlie  law  was  constantly  directed  to  enforce  a  steady 
in<lustry,  and  a  sober  management  of  his  affairs.  No  mendicant  was 
tolerated  in  Peru.  When  a  man  was  reduced  by  poverty  or  misfor- 
tune, —  it  could  hardly  be  by  fault,  — tlie  arm  of  the  law  was  stretched 
out  to  minister  relief;  not  the  stinted  relief  of  private  charity,  nor 
that  which  is  doled  out,  drop  by  drop,  as  it  were,  from  the  frozen 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  329 

reservoirs  of  'the  parish,'  but  in  generous  measure,  bringing  no 
humiUation  to  the  object  of  it,  and  pUicing  him  ou  a  level  with  the 
rest  of  his  countrymen. 

"No  man  could  be  rich,  no  man  could  be  poor  in  Peru,  but  all 
might  enjoy,  and  did  enjoy  a  competence.  Ambition,  avarice,  the 
love  of  change,  the  morbid  spirit  of  discontent,  —  those  passions  which 
most  agitate  the  minds  of  men,  —  found  no  place  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Peruvian." 

I  have  said  that  the  Inca  government  of  ancient  Peru  was  the  only 
historical  instance  of  a  socialistic  government  known  to  us.  Perhaps, 
however,  I  might  have  added  another,  which,  however  great  the  dif- 
ference, had  still  tlie  same  prominent  socialistic  features,  and  was 
accompanied  bv  the  same  beneficent  results.  This  is  the  government 
which  the  Jesuits  established  and  maintained  for  nearl}'^  a  centurj'^  in 
Paraguay,  and  whicli  seems  almost  to  have  been  modelled  after  that 
of  ancient  Peru.  It  is  South  America,  therefore,  which,  curiously* 
enough,  has  furnished  us  with  the  two  great  experiments  of  Socialism 
known  to  history. 

It  was  about  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  that  the  order  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  obtained  possession  of  that  fertile  and  salubrious 
district,  having  some  eighty-four  thousand  square  miles  in  extent, 
lying  inland,  between  the  rivers  Parana  and  Paraguaj-,  south  of 
Brazil.  Tliey  found  the  inhabitants  in  a  state  little  different  from 
that  which  takes  place  among  men  when  they  first  unite  together.  — 
subsisting  precariously  b}'^  hunting  and  fishing,  unacquainted  with 
agriculture  and  manufactures,  and  strangers  to  the  first  principles  of 
subordination  and  government.  They  were,  however,  of  the  same 
mild  and  gentle  disposition  which  was  so  distinguished  a  character- 
istic of  the  ancient  Peruvians. 

Tiie  Jesuits  at  once  devoted  themselves  to  instruct  and  to  civilize 
them,  teaching  them  to  cultivate  the  ground,  to  rear  tame  animals, 
and  to  build  houses.  Tliey  introduced  the  culture  of  grain,  rice, 
cotton,  tobacco,  and  the  so-called  Paraguay  tea  (^yerha  mate),  and 
laid  the  foundation  of  those  immense  herds  of  cattle,  which  still  con- 
tinue to  be  the  main  wealth  of  that  little  South  American  republic ; 
the}'  brought  them  together  in  villages,  and  trained  them  to  arts  and 
manufactures ;  they  made  them  taste  the  sweets  of  societ}-.  and 
accustomed  them  to  the  blessings  of  security  and  order ;  they  gov- 
erned them  with  a  tender  attention,  more  resembling  that  which  a 


330  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

father  directs  to  his  children  than  the  relation  which  usually  exists 
between  the  governors  and  the  governed ;  they  maintained  a  perfect 
equality  among  all  the  members  of  the  community,  nearly  a  million 
in  number,  each  of  whom  loas  obliged  to  labor,  not  for  himself  alone, 
but  for  the  public.  The  produce  of  their  fields,  togetlier  with  the 
fruits  of  their  industry  of  every  species,  were  deposited  in  common 
store-houses,  from  which  each  individual  received  everything  neces- 
sary for  the  supply  of  his  wants.  Poverty,  crime,  envy,  and  dissat- 
isfaction, which  render  men  unhappy  under  all  other  governments, 
were  thus  almost  unknown  in  Paraguay ;  and  a  few  magistrates, 
chosen  from  among  their  countrymen  by  the  Indians  themselves, 
sufficed  to  maintain  public  tranquilit}^  and  secure  obedience  to  the 
laws.  Sanguinary  punishments  were  absolutely  unknown.  An  ad- 
monition from  one  of  the  Jesuits,  a  slight  mark  of  reproach,  or,  in 
extreme  cases,  a  few  lashes  from  a  whip,  were  sufficient  to  maintain 
good  order.  In  order  to  prevent  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  of 
the  adjacent  settlements  from  acquiring  any  dangerous  influence  over 
these  Indians,  the  Jesuits  cut  off  all  intercourse  between  their 'sub- 
jects and  the  adjoining  settlements,  allowing  no  private  trader  to 
enter  their  territories ;  and  in  order  to  render  Paraguay  secure 
against  attack,  they  formed  their  subjects  into  bodies  of  cavalry  and 
infantry,  completely  armed  and  regularly  disciplined,  and  provided  a 
great  train  of  artillery,  as  well  as  magazines  of  all  the  implements  of 
war. 

The  singular  resemblance  between  these  institutions  of  the  Jesuits 
in  Paraguay  and  those  of  primitive  Peru  are  apparent  at  a  glance. 
Nor  is  the  resemblance  between  J;he  elements  which  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  these  institutions,  and  those  elements  which  made  their 
application  possible,  less  striking.  Like  the  Incas,  the  Jesuits  were 
few  in  number ;  wise,  benevolent,  energetic ;  with  only  one  grand 
passion,  — love  of  rule.  Every  Jesuit  aspires  to  be,  if  not  sole  ruler 
of  the  world,  at  least  one  of  the  few,  who  have  made  the  rule  of  the 
world  his  sole  aim  and  object.  The  Paraguay  Indians,  on  the  other 
hand,  like  their  countrymen  of  Peru,  loved  the  mild,  unoppressive 
despotism  of  a  fatherly  government.  Absolute  submission  was  to 
these  childlike  creatures  advancement,  happiness,  virtue. 

It  would  have  been  of  inestimable  benefit  not  only  for  Paraguay, 
but  for  all  South  America,  and  in  a  gre.at  measure  for  all  mankind, 
if  this  great  experiment  to  raise  up  in  the  depths  of  South  America 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  331 

and  amongst  a  race  of  savages  a  model  civilization,  society,  and 
government,  had  received  no  check.  But  Clement  XIV.,  giving  way 
to  the  pressure  of  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  —  who  had  begun 
to  fear  the  growing  power  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  — abrogated  the 
order  in  1773,  and  with  its  abrogation,  and  an  exchange  of  some 
of  the  South  American  possessions  between  Spain  and  Portugal, 
the  Jesuit  government  in  Paraguay  came  to  an  end. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE    RUSSIAN    MIR    SOCIALISTIC    LNTSTITUTION    AND    THE    LAXD 
TENURES   IN  EUROPE. 

Another  attempted  practical  solution  of  this  problem,  but  which 
relates  only  to  landholders  and  land-laborers,  is  that  of  the  Russian 
7?i/r  (commune).  A  short  sketch  of  it  may  also  opportunely  come 
in  here.  The  mir  constitutes  a  sort  of  democratic  government. 
The  "assembly,"  which  is  composed  of  the  heads  of  families,  makes 
all  the  laws,  directs  all  during  the  harvest,  manages  the  labor,  pun- 
ishes those  who  do  not  pay  their  taxes,  etc.  It  elects  the  elder, 
who  acts  as  maj^or ;  also  the  collector,  the  watchman  of  the  night,  the 
burgher  of  the  village.  At  certain  periods  the  central  administration 
reviews  all  the  male  peasants  of  the  commune,  from  the  latest-born 
to  the  centenarian,  and  each  commune  pays  to  the  government  an 
annual  sum  proportionate  to  this  enumeration.  All  families  are  col- 
lectivel}^  and  individually  responsible  for  the  payment  of  this  sum. 
It  is  important,  therefore,  that  every  one  should  work,  as  idleness 
does  not  prevent  the  payment  of  individual  taxes,  and  they  must  be 
borne  by  others.  The  system  of  corporal  punishment  still  remains 
in  use  against  those  who  do  not  pay  their  dues. 

The  commune  distributes  land  between  its  members  as  it  judges 
proper,  according  to  the  resources  of  the  applicants,  or,  rather,  their 
ability  to  work  ;  besides  which,  every  family  owns  a  house  and  garden, 
which  is  its  hereditary  property,  and  is  never  disturbed  bj'-  the  other 
periodical  redistributions.  Many  peasants  go  to  work  in  cities,  and 
remain  there  a  large  portion  of  the  year,  and  some  permanently ; 
but  this  does  not  i)revent  their  title  to  their  rural  homes,  or  exempt 
them  from  the  tax.     The  women  and  children  remain  in  the  villages. 


332  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

Wiien  work  fails,  or  old  age  or  sickness  arrives,  the  Russian  peasant 
retires  to  his  country  home,  and  the  law  preserves  his  cabin,  liis  agri- 
cultural tools,  his  house  and  household  furniture,  when  he  becomes 
helpless  or  insolvent. 

The  emancipation  of  the  serfs  naturally  put  an  end  to  this  system 
of  the  mir,  but  at  the  same  time  established  a  distribution  of  land, 
the  like  of  which  had  not  been  witnessed  since  the  days  of  the  French 
Revolution.  A  sketch  of  this  change  will  complete  a  description  of 
the  great  practical  solutions  of  the  conflict  between  capital  and  labor 
attempted  on  this  globe,  and  at  the  same  time  show  how  very  little 
difficulty  there  really  is  in  effecting  a  distribution  of  lands,  held  in 
vast  tracts  by  a  few  owners,  amongst  the  tenants,  the  real  cultivators 
of  the  soil.     I  quote  from  an  eminent  writer  on  the  subject:  — 

"The  proprietors,  or  nobles,  who  had  derived  from  their  serfs  an 
annual  revenue,  either  in  labor,  money,  or  farm  produce,  —  as  well 
from  the  direct  cultivation  of  the  land  as  in  commutation  of  service 
from  those  serfs  who  were  permitted  to  work  on  their  own  account  at 
home,  or  reside  as  mechanics,  traders,  etc.,  at  a  distance, — were 
called  upon  in  1861  to  accept  a  new  condition  of  affairs.  Hitherto 
they  had  paid  a  poll-tax  to  the  government  on  the  number  of  '  souls ' 
they  counted  on  their  estates,  and  although  by  law  the  serf  was  per- 
mitted to  work  three  days  of  each  week  on  his  own  account,  the  ma- 
jority of  the  proprietors  followed  their  own  interests  in  regulating  the 
service  due.  The  new  law  compelled  the  proprietor  to  cede  abso- 
lutely to  the  peasants  a  portion  of  his  estate,  to  give  up  to  them  the 
houses  and  gardens,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  arable  land ;  in  other 
words,  to  convert  the  former  serfs  into  members  of  free  communes. 
The  taxes  were  shifted,  and  the  proprietor  received  his  compensation 
in  this  wise :  The  land  was  valued,  the  dues  were  capitalized  at  six  per 
cent,  and  the  government  paid  at  once  to  tiie  proprietors  four-fifths 
of  tlie  whole  sum  in  government  bonds.  The  peasants  were  to  pay 
to  the  proprietor  the  remaining  fifth,  and  to  the  government  six  per 
cent  tor  forty-nine  years  on  the  sum  advanced.  Tlie  basis  of  the 
distribution  of  land  was,  for  the  most  part,  that  portion  of  it  occupied 
by  the  village  communes  in  the  large  estates ;  in  case  this  was  con- 
sidered insufficient,  more  was  added.  The  domestic  serfs,  number- 
ing 1,500,000,  were  compelled  to  serve  the  masters  during  two  years, 
after  which  they  were  absolutely  free,  but  had  no  claim  to  a  share  of 
laiv\ 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  333 

"The  working  out  of  the  new  order  in  the  relation  of  the  peasant  to 
the  government  direct,  and  his  new  share  in  self-government,  is  of 
course  open  to  all  the  disadvantages  of  a  state  of  experiment  and 
transition.  In  the  old  mir  there  were  the  controlling  forces  in  the 
background,  of  State  officials  in  the  State  demesne,  and  of  the  pro- 
prietor on  his  estates,  while  in  the  village  assemblies  for  local  regula- 
tion the  shrewd  sagacit}^  of  the  elder  peasants  bore  sway  and  inter- 
iweted  the  unwritten  law.  In  the  new  community  the  few  educated 
peasants  have  a  great  advantage  over  the  ignorant  ones,  which  is  an 
argument  for  the  speedy  increase  of  free  seliools,  as  the  temptation 
to  use  their  superior  advantages  to  their  own  profit  is  not  always 
resisted.  The  discussions  ai'e  noisier,  and  a  certain  amount  of  vaaka 
(brandy)  distrilinted.  is  said  often  to  carry  a  decision  with  it.  Neither 
an  act  of  Parliament  nor  an  imperial  edict  can  convey  the  spiiit  of 
self-government;  it  does  but  create  the  form,  the  rest  must  be  left  to 
the  slower  growth  of  usage,  supported  by  the  education  of  the  whole." 

In  conclusion  to  these  remai'ks  on  the  systems  of  land-tenure  prac- 
tised in  Russia,  in  ancient  Peru,  and  in  Paraguay  under  Jesuit  rule,  — 
all  resembling  each  other  in  the  fundamental  principle  of  a  commune^ 
communality,  commons,  commonwealth,  —  I  will  trace  in  a  few  rough 
outlines  the  origin  of  this  Communism,  its  sudden  disappearance  in 
Europe,,  and  its  gradual  revival  in  recent  times. 

The  Ar3'an  race  —  that  is,  the  Indo- Germanic  tribes  —  always 
held  land  in  common.  No  individual  could  claim  for  himself  a  cer- 
tain parcel  of  land  as  his  specific  property.  He  might  own  and 
appropriate  to  his  own  exclusive  use  anything  else,  but  not  real  es- 
tate. The  land  that  he  cultivated  belonged  to  the  community  of  which 
he  was  a  member ;  he  had  simply  the  use  of  it.  Every  year  this  use 
was  continued,  but  it  might  happen  that  a  different  piece  of  ground 
would  be  allotted  to  him  each  year.  A  village  composed  of,  say,  one 
hundred  adults,  appropriated,  for  instance,  five  thousand  acres  for  the 
use  of  its  inhabitants.  Now,  instead  of  allowing  each  person  to  claim 
fifty  acres  as  his  individual  property,  the  commune,  or  sj^ndics,  allowed 
him  the  whole  or  a  portion  of  these  fifty  acres  of  land  for  cultivation 
upon  a  tenure  from  year  to  year.  If  at  the  end  of  one  j^ear  his 
family  had  increased,  he  would  receive  an  additional  piece  of  land. 

This  system  of  common  land-tenure  holds  good  still  in  many  parts 
of  India,  as  it  still  does  in  Russia,  under  the  vi.ir  system,  and  as  it 
had  held  good  in  ail  Europe  until  the  rise  of  the  system  of  feudal 


334  LIBERTY   AND    LAW. 

land-tenure.  Even  at  the  present  day,  curious  travellers  may  find 
traces  of  the  commune  in  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Spain,  and  the 
Low  Countries. 

But  when  the  life  of  the  cultivator  of  the  soil  became  a  separate 
life  from  that  of  the  dweller  in  cities,  and  between  the  two  classes  of 
free  peasants  and  burghers  there  arose  the  class  of  serfs,  as  fighting 
men, — the  warriors,  who  followed  their  liege  lords  or  knights  to  the 
wars, — the  foundation  was  laid  for  that  sj'stem  of  feudal  rule  and  tenure 
which  held  Europe  in  subjection  until  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and 
which  is  still  predominant  in  Great  Britain.  The  feudal  system 
abolished  the  ancient  law  of  the  commune,  concentrating  the  owner- 
ship of  large  landed  estates  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  whose  exclusive 
ownership  was  perpetuated  in  each  family  by  the  laws  of  entail  and 
primogeniture.  The  inhabitants  of  cities  were  not  so  much  oppressed 
by  this  military  s^ystem  of  feudal  tenure,  but  the  tillers  of  the  soil 
were  reduced  to  serfdom,  and  their  burdens  became  intolerable. 

It  was  to  the  enslaved  agricultural  population  of  France,  not  to  the 
denizens  of  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine,  that  we  owe  the  French  Revo- 
lution of  1789.  St.  Antoine  may  claim  that  of  1793  without  contra- 
diction ;  but  it  was  the  peasant,  not  the  citizen  workman,  who  first 
organized  the  Jacobin  clubs,  and  who  started  the  chant  of  the  Mar- 
seillaise. 

And  what  was  the  outcome  of  the  great  French  Revolution  of  1789  ? 
The  destruction  of  the  feudal  system  of  land-tenure  :  firstly,  in  France  ; 
and,  secondly,  over  all  Europe.  Wherever  the  French  arm}'  advanced, 
with  its  battle-cry  of  Liherte^  Egalite,  Frateniite,  the  feudal  fabric  of 
land-tenure  crumbled  into  dust. 

Only  one  country  was  left  untouched  by  this  sweeping  reform,  — 
the  country  whereunto  French  armies  could  not  penetrate,  —  Great 
Britain.  There  the  feudal  system,  with  all  its  despotic  features,  re- 
mains to  this  day.  In  every  other  European  country,  and  all  over  Amer- 
ica, scarcely  a  vestige  of  it  is  to  be  found  any  more  ;  but  in  Great 
Britain,  the  dread  of  Napoleon  and  French  invasion  produced  also  such 
a  dread  of  the  political  ideas  which  followed  in  the  train  of  his  armies, 
that  the  British  mind  was  rendered  as  inaccessible  to  the  new  French 
ideas  as  the  British  soil  was  inaccessible  to  the  French  armies.  But 
the  time  must  come,  and,  in  fact,  is  rapidly  approaching,  when  Great 
Britain  must  give  way  to  the  new  oider  of  things,  as  the  other  coun- 
tries of  Europe  and  America  have  been  compelled  to  give  way. 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  335 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  HISTOEICAL  ORIGIN  OF  THE  CONFLICT  — CONTINUED. 

It  is  very  evident,  that  neither  of  these  practical  solutions  of  the 
problem  before  us  will  satisfy  modern  civilization.  Let  us,  therefore, 
retrace  our  steps,  and  see  whether  we  cannot  reach  it  from  another 
point  of  view. 

With  the  disappearance  of  nomadic  life  there  remained  two  classes 
of  men, — the  herdsmen  and  cultivators  of  the  soil,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  cities,  —  each  class  being  desirous  to  effect  an  interchange  of 
their  respective  commodities.  Soon,  however,  as  I  have  already 
said,  a  third  class  of  middlemen  —  merchants  —  arose,  who  made 
this  interchange  their  own  especial  business  ;  and,  to  facilitate  it, 
invented  tokens  representing  the  value  of  all  kinds  of  commodities, 
which  tokens  came  to  be  known  as  money.  Now,  so  long  as  the 
dealings  between  the  industrial  and  agricultural  classes  were  carried 
on  solely  by  direct  barter,  each  party  exchanging  only  for  that  of 
which  he  stood  in  actual  or  immediate  need,  there  was  little  or  no 
chance  of  any  great  inequality  arising  in  regard  to  the  value  of  the 
possessions  of  either  class.  The  mechanic  found  it  useless  to  tnanu- 
facture  more  than  was  necessary  to  supply  his  wants,  and  the  farmer 
had  no  incentive  to  raise  more  grain  or  cattle  than  would  serve  his 
own  needs  and  enable  him  to  procure  the  tools  which  he  needed 
from  the  mechanics  of  the  cities. 

But  with  the  invention  of  money-tokens  there  was  stirred  up  in 
man's  breast  that  most  ineradicable  of  all  passions,  the  desire  to 
possess  the  future.  Most  ineradicable,  perhaps,  because  most  ideal. 
There  is  no  present  gratification  in  what  lies  beyond  it ;  there  is  noth- 
ing real,  nothing  substantial  about  it.  And  yet  those  men  who,  above 
all  others,  boast  of  their  realism,  their  everj^-day  practical  wisdom 
and  conduct,  are  the  very  ones  who  are  most  zealous  in  their  pursuit 
of  the  ideal  future  in  its  phantom  shape  of  money ;  just  as  those  same 
men  are  preeminently  anxious  about  immortaUty.  The  true  idealist 
bothers  himself  very  little  about  the  future  in  either  shape,  but  is  very 
solicitous  to  engraft  the  ideal  upon  the  present  real  world.  He  does 
not  lay  up  hoards  for  the  future,  but  works  out,  with  his  woi-dly 
treasures,  the  splendor  of  the  ideal  upon  the  present;  he  does  not 


336  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

worry  himself  about  his  immortality,  but  strives  to  lead  an  immortal 
life  even  here  upon  earth. 

The  invention  of  money-tokens  was,  as  I  have  said,  the  immediate 
cause  which  stirred  up  man's  passion  for  the  possession  of  the  future  ; 
for  these  tokens,  though  also  of  daily  direct  use  in  effecting  the  inter- 
change of  commodities,  had  necessarily  another  character,  namely, 
that  of  being  stored  awa^^  and  enabling  the  holder  of  them,  at  any 
time  (present  or  future),  to  effect  such  interchange.  The  mechanic, 
who  was  able  to  manufacture  more  articles  than  were  needed  for  his 
daily  support,  was  thus  induced  to  manufacture  as  man^^  more  of 
them  as  possible,  and  to  exchange,  or  rather  sell,  this  superfluity  for 
money,  which  he  could  use  at  any  time  and  for  the  purchase  of  any- 
thing ;  and  the  farmer  was  in  the  same  way  instigated  to  produce  far 
above  his  necessities,  since  he  was  enabled  to  dispose  of  all  his  sur- 
plus for  money,  which  he  could  hoard  away  for  future  use.  This 
new  state  of  affairs  naturally  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  man  possess- 
ing the  greater  amount  of  ready  money  a  greater  power  than  was  en- 
joyed by  those  who  had  less  of  it ;  a  po\yer  entirely  different  from 
the  political  power  of  the  government  officials,  and  from  that  of  the 
wiser  over  the  more  ignorant  of  mankind  ;  a  power  which,  in  its  abso- 
luteness, idealism,  and  unscrupulous  exercise,  finds  a  counterpart 
only  in  the  power  exercised  by  priestcraft  through  religious  fanati- 
cism, —  the  power  of  wealth. 

Let  us  illustrate  how  the  power  might  have  been,  and  was  exer- 
cised at  the  earliest  times,  as  it  is  still  exercised  every  day  in  all  the 
money  markets  of  the  world  :  — 

Through  long  years  of  labor,  economy,  and  what  not  other  of 
financial  virtues,  let  us  suppose  that  one  individual  (A.)  of  a  small 
community  had  been  able  to  put  aside  and  hoard  a  vast  quantity  of 
the  money-tokens  circulating  in  that  community.  With  these  money- 
tokens  he  could  purchase  any  marketable  commodity  within  that 
community,  those  tokens  constituting,  as  they  did,  absolute  property, 
as  distinguished  from  all  other  kinds  of  property.  Then,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  a  bad  wheat-season,  let  us  say,  he  made  use  of  them  to 
purchase  all  the  wheat  within  his  reach.  What  was  the  result?  All 
the  wheat-consumers  and  bread-eaters  of  that  community  became  his 
abject  slaves,  so  far  as  that  great  necessary'  of  Ufe  was  concerned. 

This  is  precisely  the  phenomenon  that  occurs  at  the  present  day  in 
every  so-called  "cornering"  movement.  It  is  the  phenomenon  of 
money-monopolies,  —  the  power  of  the  rich  to  grind  down  the  poor. 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  337 


CHAPTER    VI. 

ATTEMPTS    AT    THEOEETICAL    SOLUTIONS    OF    THE    PROBLEM  — 
THE   KCSSLVN   COMMUNISTS   AND   GERMAN   SOCIALISTS. 

We  have  already  seen  that  no  practical  means  of  removing  this 
distinction  have  ever  yet  been  devised  by  men ;  the  most  perfect 
method  —  that  of  the  form  of  government  in  ancient  Peru  —  being- 
incompatible  with  our  civilization,  and  that  of  the  ancient  mir,  or 
communistic,  S3'stem  in  Russia  —  a  relic  of  ancient  Hindoo  civiliza- 
tion—  being  also  impracticable  in  our  days,  and,  besides,  imperfect 
in  itself. 

Let  us  now  see  what  theoretical  means  of  doing  away  with  this 
conflict  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  have  been  devised.  And  here 
we  shall,  strangely  enough,  again  have  to  recur  to  Russia ;  for  of  the 
two  plans  proposed  to  settle  this  great  social  difficulty,  one  (the 
Socialistic),  it  is  true,  has  its  origin  in  Germany ;  but  the  other 
(the  Communistic)  has,  if  not  its  origin,  at  least  its  most  radical 
and  uncompromising  exponents  in  Russia.  We  will  begin  with  the 
latter. 

It  certainly  seems  strange  that  the  most  absolutely  despotic  country 
in  the  world,  Russia,  should  also  be  the  greatest  Communistic  volcano 
of  the  world.  But  so  it  has  been,  even  for  the  past  forty  or  fifty  years, 
under  the  influence  of  German  philosophical  propagandists.  Besides, 
it  is  well  known  that  extremes  always  meet ;  and  it  is  therefore  very 
fit  that  the  absolute  despotism  of  the  "  Father,"  as  the  Russians  call 
their  emperor,  should  find  its  dialectic  opposite  in  the  absolute  Com- 
munism of  the  Bakonites,  for  both  are  inexorably  despotic  in  the 
carrying  out  of  their  programmes :  though  the  absolute  Positivist, 
the  Czar,  has,  in  one  respect  at  least,  greatly  the  advantage  over 
the  absolute  Nihilist,  Bakonine.  For,  whereas  the  emperor  extended 
to  Bakonine  the  clemency  of  temporary  exile, ^  Bakonine,  under  the 
same  circumstances,  would  assuredly  have  expedited  the  Czar  to 
permanent  and  far  more  remote  exile  by  a  prescription  of  dynamite. 
The  Czar  would  have  no  government  but  that  of  his  individual  will ; 
the  Bakonite  is  opposed  to  every  kind  of   government.     The  Czar 


1  "What  shall  I  do  with  this  Bakonine,"  said  he;   "I  can  neither  liang-  him 
nor  send  liim  to  Siberia?" 

22 


338  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

sometimes  makes  concessions,  and  on  state  occasions  even  smiles 
upon  his  subjects  ;  the  Bakonite  Communist  neither  concedes  nor 
smiles.  He  has  onl}^  one  passion :  to  break  down  civil  order  all 
over  the  civilized  world,  —  to  abolish  or  abrogate  all  the  laws,  all  the 
customs,  all  the  morals,  and  all  the  recognized  ethics  of  the  world. 
His  sole  object  is  destruction, — destruction  of  all  that  exists;  for 
all  that  exists  is  wrong.  This  is  the  Russian  Communist's  catechism  ; 
these  are  the  principles  with  which  he  has  infected  all  Europe,  and 
threatens  to  infect  even  our  own  country. 

The  Socialists  of  Germany  and  France  were  innocent  dreamers  as 
compared  with  these  melancholic  preachers  of  Sclavonia,  who  have 
thus  interpreted  to  them  as  the  ultimate  end  of  all  liberty,  — that  is, 
liberty  without  law,  —  the  gospel  of  universal  destruction.  The  Com- 
mune of  Paris  would  never  have  committed  the  atrocities  which  drew 
upon  it  the  execrations  of  the  world  but  for  the  teachings  of  those 
inen  of  Russia,  whom  the  horrors  of  absolute  despotism  had  driven 
to  believe  that  nothing  could  overcome  it  but  the  perpetration  of  still 
greater  horrors.  Even  the  literature  of  Western  Europe  and  our  own 
literature  bear  the  impress  of  this  Sclavonic  Nihilism  and  Communism, 
as  interpreted  in  the  novels  and  poems  of  Russia.  In  Alfred  de 
Musset's  as  in  Baudelere's  writings,  in  the  English  Saturday  Revievj 
as  in  the  dail}'  press  of  the  United  States,  we  have  the  constant 
refrain :  Destroy !  destroy !  even  as  a  few  years  ago  we  heard  it  here 
reechoed  from  the  coal-mines  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  railroads  of  the 
West. 

Let  us  stop  to  look  a  moment  at  this  Michael  Bakonine,  the  fore- 
most apostle  of  Russian  Nihilism,  though  now  he  lies  himself  annihi- 
lated in  the  grave.  When,  some  thirteen  years  ago,  he  retired  from 
political  life,  he  wrote :  — 

"  I  am  tired  of  fighting  any  longer,  having  done  nothing  else  my 
whole  life.  I  am  over  sixty  years  old,  and  a  painful  heart-disease 
contributes  still. further  to  make  existence  hateful  to  me.  Let  other, 
younger  forces  rally  to  the  work.  I  have  neither  the  power  any  more, 
nor,  perhaps,  the  confidence  in  myself,  to  continue  rolling  the  stone 
of  Sisyphus  incessantly  upward  against  the  always  victorious  reaction. 
Hence  I  retire  from  the  field  of  battle,  and  ask  of  my  dear  fellow- 
men  only  this  one  thing, — to  forget  me.  Hereafter  I  shall  disturb 
no  one's  rest  any  more;  let  no  one,  then,  disturb  mine." 

Bakonine  entered  life  as  an  officer  of  artillery,  but  in  earliest  youth 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  339 

he  had  imbibed  that  wild  spirit  of  revolution  which  is  to  be  found 
only  in  the  most  despotic  of  empires,  — in  Russia  ;  among  the  gloomi- 
est people  in  Europe,  the  Sclavonic.  Graduated  in  the  philosophy  of 
Schelling,  which  was  then  the  rage  at  Moscow,  Bakonine  soon  threw 
that  study  aside  to  listen  to  the  more  exciting  lectures  of  Belinski  on 
history  and  politics.  It  was  b}'^  this  great  Russian  writer  and  historian 
that  Bakonine  was  educated  in  the  faith  to  which  he  has  clung  all  his 
lifetime.  Unable  to  conspire  for  the  realization  of  his  ideas  in  Rus- 
sia, Bakonine  resigned  his  position  in  the  army  and  went  to  Paris, 
where  he  remained  several  years,  and  became  the  advocate  of  the 
Poles,  — of  the  people  whom  he  had  all  his  life  been  taught  to  look 
upon  as  an  inferior  race,  utterl}^  unable  to  govern  themselves.  Then 
■came  the  revolution  of  1848,  and  Bakonine  passed  over  into  Ger- 
many, the  great  revolutionary  centre  of  that  period.  Here  he  worked 
like  a  beaver,  —  planning,  conspiring,  and  organizing  secret  societies 
and  labor  unions  everywhere  ;  and  teaching  his  wild  doctrine  of  the 
abolition  of  all  government  and  lawful  authority.  In  Dresden  — 
where  his  exploits  as  dictator  of  that  city  are  still  remembered  —  he 
was  captured  with  his  arms  in  his  hands,  and  condemned  to  death,  but 
his  punishment  was  subsequently  commuted  to  imprisonment  for  life. 
On  being  claimed  bj'  Russia,  Jnowever,  the  German  authorities . gave 
him  up.  In  Russia  he  was  kept  in  prison  from  1849  to  1855,  and 
wa:s  then  sent  to  Siberia.  From  Siberia  he  escaped  to  Japan,  crossed 
over  to  the  United  States,  and  from  here  went  to  Switzerland,  where 
he  devoted  himfeelf  exclusively  to  the  propagation  of  his  doctrines. 
Tliese  doctrines  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  Destruction  of  every 
form  of  political  State ;  substitution  for  it  of  workingmen's  associa- 
tions ;  collective  property  in  land ;  the  common  appropriation  of  all 
the  instruments  of  labor ;  and  atheism  in  religion  and  materialism  in 
philosophy. 

In  his  life,  Bakonine  has  been  a  pretty  good  illustration  of  the  re- 
sults his  doctrines  would  make  vuaiversal,  if  carried  out.  He  has 
always  been  impecunious,  and  compelled  to  rely  upon  the  support  of 
personal  friends.  But,  according  to  him,  this  is  the  natural  condition 
of  a  "revolutionary,"  for  in  his  recently  published  "revolutionary 
catechism,"  Bakonine  says:  — 

"The  revolutionary  is  a  sacred  person.  He  has  no  individual  inter- 
est, no  business,  no  feelings,  no  inclinations,  no  propert}',  and  even 
no  name.     He  has  only  one  thought,  one  passion,  —  revolution      He 


340  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

has  completely  broken  with  civil  order  in  the  whole  civilized  world ; 
with  laws,  customs,  morals,  and  all  the  recognized  ethics  of  this- 
world.  He  repudiates  all  the  science  of  this  world  by  saving  it  foi* 
future  generations,  and  for  himself  knows  only  one  science,  —  de- 
struction. Cold  towards  himself,  he  must  be  so  also  toward  others ; 
all  feelings  of  inclinations  —  all  effeminating  sentiments  of  gratitude, 
friendship,  love,  and  relationship  —  must  be  quenched  in  him  by  the 
one  cold  passion  of  his  revolutionary  work.  Day  and  night,  without 
cessation,  he  must  have  one  single  thought,  one  single  object,  —  un- 
compromising destruction  ;  and  to  obtain  this  object,  he  must  be 
ready  to  die  himself,  and  to  kill  with  his  own  hands  all  those  who 
hinder  him  in  his  object." 

And  this  is  the  programme  of  the  Bakonites,  as  put  before  the 
world  in  the  last  congress  of  the  party,  held  at  Verviers,  Switzer- 
land :  — 

Private  property  is  no  longer  to  be  recognized,  whether  it  consists 
of  lands,  buildings,  moneys,  manufactures,  or  any  other  species  of 
property.  It  is  all  to  become  the  common  propert}'  of  separate 
groups  of  workingmen,  into  which  the  whole  world  is  to  be  divided, 
after  all  governmental  and  State  organizations,  as  at  present  existing, 
shall  have  been  successfully  abolished.  There  are  to  be  no  more 
States,  no  legislatures,  no  municipaHties,  and  no  courts,  —  nothing 
but  these  bodies  of  workingmen,  who  are  to  form  temporary  unions- 
for  specific  purposes,  and  after  the  attainment  of  those  purposes,  to 
separate  again. 

An  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  this  is  to  be  accomplished 
was  furnished  during  the  short  existence  of  the  late  Spanish  Re- 
public, while  the  eloquent  Castelar  was  president,  in  the  case  of 
the  manufacturing  city,  Cartliagena,  where  the  Workingmen' & 
part}'  —  the  Bakonine  Communists  —  had  taken  control  of  the  place 
and  held  it  for  a  long  time  against  the  I'epublican  government.  A 
republican  government  was  as  odious  to  them  as  a  monarchical  gov- 
ernment, —  nay,  seemingly  even  more  so.  These  Bakonites,  or 
extreme  Communists,  whose  chief  strength  lies  in  parts  of  France, 
Italy,  and  Spain,  but  more  especially  in  Russia,  are  fanatic  in  their 
demand  for  the  abolition  of  all  government,  and  the  establishment  in 
its  place  of  a  community  of  interest  in  all  things,  even  in  women. 
As  concert  of  action  in  one  general  movement  is  impossible,  under 
their  programme,  they  propose  to  accomplish  it  piecemeal,  as  in  the 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  341 

case  of  Carthagena,  referred  to,  and  as  in  the  case  of  the  strikes  of 
some  years  ago  in  various  cities  of  the  United  States,  which  strikes 
also  received  the  indorsement  of  the  Verviers  congress.  Each  place, 
however,  where  the  workingmen  make  a  movement,  is  to  receive  the 
support  of  all  other  workingmen' s  organizations  over  the  world. 
It  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  the  late  strike  movement  in  this  country 
received  its  main  support  from  Europe,  and  that  its  leaders  acted 
throughout,  and  still  act,  in  conjunction  with  and  sometimes  under 
instructions  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  European  leaders.  There 
is,  however,  one  point  wherein  the  ultra  Communists  and  the  Work- 
ingmen's  party,  as  it  exhibits  itself  in  the  United  States,  differ  mate- 
rially, and  which  will  explain  —  what  to  most  of  our  people  has  seemed 
inexplicable  —  the  rupture  between  the  Communistic  element  of  the 
strikers  and  the  element  of  the  Workingmen  proper.  This  is,  that  the 
real  Communists  do  not  desire  their  members  to  strike  for  higher 
wages,  but  for  the  abrogfition  of  all  tvages,  and  the  overthrow  of  ail 
forms  of  government.  This  was,  indeed,  expressed  in  so  many  words 
at  the  Verviers  congress.  The  real  Communistic  programme  is  set 
forth  in  these  words,  from  one  of  their  organs,  the  Carthagena  Los 
Daslcamisados :  — 

"Let  everything  be  for  every  one,  even  the  women.  From  this 
Ijeavitiful  disorder,  or  rather,  this  orderly  disorder,  the  true  harmony 
will  arise.  But  before  our  programme  is  carried  out,  it  will  be  nec- 
essary to  purify  society.  A  short,  but  large  and  uncommon  blood- 
letting will  be  necessary.  The  rotten  branches  of  the  social  tree  must 
be  cut  off,  in  order  that  it  may  grow  up  strong  and  healthy.  Such 
are  our  desires  and  tendencies,  and,  knowing  them,  tremble  now,  all 
ye  well-to-do  citizens,  for  your  t\'ranny  approaches  its  end.  Make 
room  for  the  shirtless !  Our  black  flag  is  unfolded  !  War  upon  the 
family!     War  upon  property !     War  upon  God!" 

The  Communists  of  Germany,  who  call  themselves  Socialists,  and 
whose  chief  leaders  at  present  are  Marx  and  Liebknecht,  differ  some- 
what in  their  purposes  from  the  Bakonites,  though  it  is  ver}'  clear 
that  they  will  finally  be  driven  to  accept  the  same  extreme  stand- 
point. At  their  last  congress  in  Geneva,  in  which  the  Bakonites, 
liowever,  also  participated,  their  programme  was  laid  down  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

All  landed  property  and  all  other  means  of  labor -— meaning,  evi- 
dently, railroads,  telegraphs,  factories,  mines,  and  business  agencies 


342  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

general!}'  —  must  become  the  property  of  the  State,  or  of  the  com- 
munity, which  includes  and  represents  the  whole  people.  The  pro- 
letariat (workingmen)  must  organize  itself  as  a  special  party,  and 
make  use  of  all  possible,  even  political,  means  to  effect  the  social 
emancipation  of  its  members.  From  its  meetings  all  shall  be  ex- 
cluded who  do  not  earn  their  livelihood  solely  by  manual  labor.  In 
the  war  of  the  laboring  classes  against  the  holders  of  property,  it  is 
ver}'  useful  to  form  workingmen' s  clubs  ;  but  it  is  an  antiquated 
notion  if  these  clubs  or  societies  strive  for  higher  wages.  They 
should  seek  to  abolish  the  present  system  of  wages  altogether ;  and 
to  effect  this,  should  establish  an  international  union,  pledging  each 
of  its  merabei-s  to  direct  his  efforts  towards  that  end.  This  inter- 
national workingmen's  union  should  be  formed  on  the  principle  of 
the  revolutionary  solidarity  of  the  unions,  and  all  these  societies 
should  mutually  assist  each  other  whenever  in  any  country  a  revolu- 
tionary movement  has  been  started. 

Such,  in  outline,  are  the  two  programmes  of  the  Communists  and 
Socialists,  both  equally  impracticable,  and  subversive  of  the  very  pur- 
poses which  they  aim  to  accomplish.  Their  pretended  end  is  liberty  ; 
but,  by  leaving  the  law  element  out,  their  intended  libert}^  becomes 
despotism.  Neither  Russian  Communism  nor  German  Socialism 
respects  the  freedom  of  the  individual,  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  every 
Anglo-Saxon,  and  to  secure  which  should  be  the  aim  of  every  indi- 
vidual and  every  government. 


CHAPTEE    VII. 


THE   HISTORICAL   ORIGIN   OF   THE   CONFLICT  — CONCLUDED. 

We  have  seen  how,  along  with  the  invention  of  money,  men  began 
to  live  in  the  future  and  hoard  their  treasures  for  the  future.  The 
subsequent  invention  of  money  of  account,  banks,  government  bonds, 
and  other  fictitious  or  ideal  money,  —  with  the  curse  of  interest  there- 
unto attached,  — gave  a  still  stronger  impetus  in  this  direction  ;  and 
these  men  of  the  future,  of  wealth,  of  the  ideal,  came  to  be  known 
as  capitalists.  Now,  when  it  happened  that  it  was  a  manufacturer 
who  thus  became  a  capitalist,  or  that  a  capitalist  turned  manufacturer 


^  CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  343 

in  order  to  increase  his  riches,  there  arose  a  new  relation  between  the 
employer  and  liis  employees  which  had  been  previously-  unlvnown. 
The  employer,  keeping  Ids  ideal  of  accumulating  wealth  for  future 
purposes  always  in  clear  view,  came  to  take  special  pains  to  curtail 
as  much  as  possible  the  wages  of  his  employees  and  advance  as 
much  as  possible  the  price  of  his  manufactures.  For  now  he  was 
able  to  put  aside  the  difference  in  money,  which  would  at  any  time 
enable  him  to  purchase  such  luxuries  as  he  or  his  descendants  might 
desire  to  enjoy.  Money  made  man  a  miser.  This  greatest  blessing, 
invented  for  civilization,  was  thus  changed  into  a  curse.  The  misery 
.  of  this  curse  was  still  further  enhanced  when  the  owner  of  mone^^ 
discovered  that  he  could  increase  his  money-treasures  b}^  loaning  it 
out  for  a  time  to  persons  who  were  in  immediate  want  of  mone}',  and 
would  be  sure  to  repay  him  ultimately,  either  in  returning  the  money 
or  giving  its  equivalent  in  labor.  For  these  loans,  of  course,  a 
charge  was  made,  —  a  charge  which  we  nowadays  call  interest.  The 
miser  thus  became  a  usurer,  and  the  lot  of  those  who  had  no  raoncv 
(of  the  poor)  became  infinitely  more  wretched  than  ever,  in  compar- 
ison with  the  lot  of  those  who  had  hoarded  it.  But  the  worst  did 
not  come  to  pass  till  the  moneyed  men  clubbed  together  and  estab- 
lished cor[)orations  of  all  kinds,  against  which  any  combination  that 
the  poor  might  seek  to  effect  seemed  powerless.  They  are  so  power- 
less until  this  day. 

In  the  agricultural  districts,  on  the  other  hand,  the  curse  of  money 
and  interest  made  itself  manifest  by  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
farmer  to  establish  a  hoard  of  treasure  by  increasing  his  landed  pos- 
sessions, and  having  the  work,  which  he  and  his  family  were  unable 
to  do,  done  by  wandering  tribes  of  workmen,  who,  in  course  of  time, 
gave  rise  to  the  institution  of  tramps.  In  this  case,  however,  the 
tramp  laborer  had  the  advantage  of  his  employer  during  certain 
seasons  of  the  year.  When  the  crops  had  to  be  harvested,  the  laborer 
was  the  despot  and  the  farmer  the  slave.  If  the  laborer  could  not 
at  one  place  obtain  the  wages  which  he  saw  fit  to  demand,  he  passed 
on  to  the  next  farm,  leaving  the  one  previously  visited  to  its  own 
devices  as  to  the  best  means  of  reaping  the  results  of  a  whole  year's 
labor.  The  manufacturer,  especially  if  combining  with  others  of  his 
class,  was  in  a  position  to  dictate  to  his  workiwgmen.  The  tramp 
workingmen  of  the  country  dictated  to  the  farmer  in  harvest  time. 
And  thus  stands  the  conflict  this  day. 


344  LIBERTY    AND    LAW.  ^ 

CHAPTER    Viri. 

THE    SYNTHETICAL    SOLUTION   OF   THE    PROBLEM. 

The  problem  was  to  establish  an  equitable  relation  between  capital 
and  labor,  or  the  rich  and  the  poor,  —  the  latter  phrase  signifying  the 
non-rich.  The  Communists  and  Socialists  propose  to  settle  this  prob- 
lem, as  I  iiave  shown,  bj'  abolishing  all  propert3%  and  making  impos- 
sible a  distinction  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  which,  as  I  have 
said  before,  is  in  reality  no  solution  at  all ;  for  the  solution  of  a 
problem  is  not  effected  b}^  simpl}^  negating  the  elements  that  compose 
it,  but  onl}'  b}^  uniting  them  in  a  higher  synthesis.  Now,  this  syn- 
thesis is  a  cooperative  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and 
for  the  people,  such  as  is  described  at  length  in  this  book;  and 
hence  this  work,  not  in  an}^  special  part  thereof,  but  in  all  its  parts, 
taken  together,  constitutes  the  real  solution  of  the  problem ;  and 
whenever  all  the  requirements  of  a  rational,  federative,  cooperative, 
republican  form  of  government  that  are  herein  laid  down  shall  have 
been  fulh'  carried  into  practice,  the  conflict  between  capital  and  labor 
will  have  ceased  to  exist.  I  say,  (dl  the  requirements  ;  for  in  a  com- 
plete synthesis  all  the  parts  composing  it  are  necessarily  connected, 
and  one  cannot  stand  without  the  other.  Without  m}'  money-S3'stem, 
my  taxation-system  cannot  stand  ;  without  the  prohibition  of  all  public 
debts  hereafter,  the  burden  of  the  people  cannot  be  made  lighter; 
without  my  telegraph-sj'stem,  the  national  daily  newspaper  would  fail 
of  its  purpose ;  without  public  hygiene,  pubUc  education  cannot  be 
carried  out;  and  without  public  education,  the  whole  fabric  of  our 
government  will  fall  to  pieces.  I  might  carry  this  exposition  out  to 
the  minutest  detail,  but  every  reader  will  easily  be  able,  by  himself, 
to  trace  the  connecting  links  throughout  the  book.  I  may  add,  how- 
ever, that  in  this  synthesis  are  also  united  the  attempted  practical  and 
the  attempted  theoretical  solutions  of  this  great  social  problem.  All 
that  was  just  and  good  for  the  whole  people  under  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment of  the  Mosaic  code,  of  ancient  Peru,  or  of  Paraguay,  and 
all  that  is  just  and  good  in  the  proposed  schemes  of  the  Socialists  and 
Communists,  will  be  developed  under  my  system  of  a  cooperative 
government ;  and  yet  none  of  the  blessings  of  a  vigorous  govern- 
ment of  law,  and  none  of  the  l:»lessings  of  a  free,  federative  repubUc 
will  be  sacrificed. 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOU.  345 

I  will  conclude  by  a  few  practical  suggestions  for  the  immediate 
relief  of  the  present  intolerable  state  of  things,  which  makes  life  a 
veritable  curse  to  the  immense  majority  of  mankind,  —  the  poorer 
classes. 

The  danger  arising  to  the  workingmen  from  the  cooperation  of 
moneyed  men  who  emploj^them,  can,  as  I  have  already  suggested,  be 
largely'  and  peaceably  averted  l\y  placing  all  means  of  public  inter- 
communication in  the  hands  of  the  government.  The  national  means 
of  public  intercommunication  would,  of  course,  pass  into  the  hands 
of  the  national  government.  But  there  are  also  local  means  of  pub- 
lic intercommunication  which  are  not  of  national  significance.  Each 
State,  for  instance,  has  its  local  railroads,  its  common  roads,  its  rivers, 
its  canals,  and  public  buildings ;  each  county  and  each  cit}-  its  im- 
provements to  make  ;  and  for  all  these  enterprises  the  various  munic- 
ipal and  State  governments  must  employ  lalior,  which  enables  them 
also  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  other  private  enterprises  in 
the  State  that  emplo}^  large  forces  of  labor,  and,  at  least  in  a  large 
measure,  determine  the  price  of  labor.  But  the  chief  means  whereby 
my  system  of  government  will  wipe  away  as  much  as  possible  the 
present  enormous  distinction  between  rich  and  poor,  and  at  least 
obviate  the  worst  of  its  features, — oppression  on  the  one  side,  and 
hatred  and  revolt  on  the  other  side,  —  is  the  establishment  of  the 
absolute  national-money  system  I  have  sketched  out  in  a  previous 
article. 

Not  only  will  the  issue  of  this  money  by  the  government  make  pos- 
sible the  construction  of  those  internal  improvements  of  which  I  have 
just  spoken,  but  it  will  also  materiall}^  lessen  the  lust  for  the  pos- 
session of  enormous  gains  by  the  abolition  of  bonds,  and  hence  of 
interest  on  our  national  securities. 

It  is  one  of  the  greatest  incentives  to  hoard  monej^,  that  it  can 
be  invested  in  securities  which  are  the  equivalent  of  money  in  all  re- 
spects, and  have  the  additional  advantage  of  increasing  the  amount  of 
money  which  they  represent,  without  any  exertion  on  the  part  of  their 
holder,  and  without  being  subject  to  taxes.  But  this  absolute  secui'- 
ity  can  be  obtained  only  in  National,  State,  and  municipal  bonds,  the 
issue  of  which  will  be  altogether  prohibited  under  my  proposed  sys- 
tem. Nor  will  the  holder  of  money  be  able  to  gratif}^  another  vicious 
taste  which  has  arisen  under  the  metallic  system  of  mone}' :  that  of 
revelUng  in  the  sight  and  touch  of  gold  and  silver  coins  ;  for  under 


346  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

my  system  the  coining  of  those  metals  will  cease,  and  they  will  be  used 
in  the  future  onl}-  for  ornaments,  as  they  were  used  altogether  in 
Peru  and  Mexico,  the  two  countries  most  rich  in  gold  and  silver  in 
their  primitive  times.  In  other  words,  it  will  root  out  th^  worst  pas- 
sion tliat  afflicts  the  human  race,  —  love  of  money  for  its  own  sake,  — 
and  put  an  end  to  the  vice  of  usury.  The  holder  of  money  will  be 
compelled,  in  his  own  interest,  to  invest  it  in  business  enterprises, 
which  will  necessitate  the  employment  of  labor  in  such  large  quanti- 
ties as  shall  insure  each  laborer  fair  wages,  and  therewith  a  fair  share 
of  the  necessities  and  comforts  of  life. 

The  same  effect  will  be  produced  in  another  way,  if  the  measures 
that  I  have  suggested  in  the  article  on  Taxation  should  be  adopted  in 
reo-ard  to  accumulated  capital.  When  the  monej'-monopolizing  mono- 
maniac learns  that  he  cannot  increase  his  hoards  beyond  a  certain 
amount  without  pa^'ing  a  ver^^  large  percentage  thereof  to  the  State  in 
the  way  of  taxes,  and  that  after  his  death  government  will  step  in  and 
claim  a  proper  share  of  his  wealth  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  com- 
munity, from  which  he  has  drawn  it  during  his  lifetime,  and  thus 
place  it  in  circulation  again,  instead  of  allowing  it  to  accumulate  even 
after  his  death,  he  will  no  longer  feel  30  strong  an  attachment  for 
unnecessary  riches  ;  and  the  days  of  the  Rothchilds  and  Vanderbiits 
will  liave  come  to  an  end. 

But  even  all  these  measures  will  only  in  a  certain  degree  remove 
the  burden  of  the  poorer  classes,  and  will  not  fully  solve  the  conflict 
between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  unless  they  are  at  the  same  time 
accompanied  by  the  abolition  of  that  curse  of  modern  life,  which 
followed  the  downfall  of  the  feudal  system  of  warfare, — the  curse 
of  standing  armies.  This  applies  at  the  present  time,  of  coui'se, 
chiefly  to  Europe ;  but  even  the  United  States  may  take  the  lesson 
to  heart  as  a  warning  for  the  future,  as  I  have  already  suggested 
in  the  pi'eceding  article  on  the  Police. 

In  a  former  part  of  this  work  I  have  pointed  out  the  most 
flagrant  horrors  to  which  this  system  of  standing  armies  leads,  —  the 
brutal  and  endless  butcheries  on  the  battle-field,  the  unpitying  cruelty 
with  which  it  sucks  the  best  life-blood  out  of  a  nation,  breaks  up 
every  tie  of  family,  breeds  a  new  crop  of  heroes  to  fill  oflScial  sin- 
ecures, and  destroys  every  sense  of  the  glory  of  civil  liberty  by 
stirring  up  the  ferocious  pride  of  the  soldier ;  but  it  is  well  in  this 
place   again  to  refer,  and  more  in  detail,  to  the  less  immediately 


CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.  347 

perceptible  burden  which  it  imposes  on  the  people, — the  monetary 
burden. 

I  quote  from  a  speech  lately  delivered  by  Mr.  H.  Richard,  in  the 
House  of  Commons  of  Great  Britain :  — 

"  During  the  fifteen  years  between  1859  and  1874  there  has  been  an 
addition  to  the  armed  forces  of  Europe  of  two  million  men.  The  total 
cost  of  the  armaments  of  Europe  have  been  estimated  at  £500,000,000 
[$2,500,000,000]  a  3'ear,  and  this  vast  expenditure  is  growing  with 
appalUng  rapidity.  The  annual  public  expenditure  in  Europe  has  risen 
from  £398,000,000  in  1865  to  £585,000,000  in  1879,  being  an  increase 
of  £187,000,000  in  the  course  of  those  fourteen  years.  In  Russia 
and  Germany  that  expenditure  has  more  than  doubled.  The  future 
was  mortgaged  for  the  needs  of  the  present,  European  national  debts 
having  swelled  in  that  period  from  £2,626,000,000  to  £4,324,000,000. 
Germany,  which  in  1865  spent  on  the  army  and  navy  £10,000,000, 
now  expends  £21,000,000  ;  and  Russia  has  increased  her  expenditure 
on  the  services  in  the  same  period  from  £22,000,000  to  £36,000,000. 
By  far  the  largest  amount  of  the  revenues  of  all  Eiiropean  nations  is 
applied  in  either  paying  the  interest  of  debts  contracted  in  former  years, 
or  making  preparations  for  future  ivars.  Only  two  classes  of  the 
populati6n  are  exempt  from  taking  part  in  warfare,  viz.,  the  women 
and  the  clergy.  The  pretext  constantly  alleged  for  these  great  arma- 
ments is,  that  these  sacrifices  secure  quiet,  confidence,  and  a  sense  of 
security.  They  might  just  as  well  say,  "You  who  wish  for  sobriety, 
prepare  for  drunkenness,"  as  advise  nations  who  desire  peace  to 
prepare  for  war.  During  the  last  twenty-five  3'ears  there  have  been 
six  sangmnary  wars,  involving  a  sacrifice  of  two  million  human  beings 
and  £3,000,000,000  [$15,000,000,000]  of  money.  The  existence  of 
these  enormous  armaments  is  an  incessant  provocative  to  war ;  and 
the  finances  of  the  great  States,  or  many  of  them,  are  in  a  condition 
of  embarrassment ;  while  the  effect  of  the  wars  in  which  those  arma- 
ments have  been  engaged  sink  multitudes  of  the  people  in  poverty, 
misery,  and  ignorance.  How  beneficial  would  have^been  the  effect  on 
the  material  and  moral  condition  of  the  population  of  Europe  if  a 
large  proportion  of  the  broad  stream  of  loeallh  p)oared  into  the  bottom- 
less abyss  of  military  expenditure  had  been  employed  in  irrigating  the 
waste  places  of  humanity. ' ' 

It  is  often  pleaded  in  behalf  of  these  enormous  outlays  for  arma- 
ments, as  against  the*  complaints  of  the  poorer  classes,  that  they  in 


348  LIBERTY    AXD    LAW. 

reality  benefit  the  poor,  in  affording  them  emploj'^raent  and  steady  pay 
when  there  is  no  work  to  be  had  and  uaoney  is  scarce  ;  and,  secondly, 
that  the  monetary  burden  falls,  after  all,  chiefly  on  the  rich,  as  the 
chief  tax-pa3'ers.  But  both  of  these  pleas  ignore  facts  as  well  as 
logic.  Some  people  are  apt  to  make  use  of  the  word  "  tax-paj^er  "  as 
if  tax-payers  were  a  distinct  class  of  the  population,  whereas  in  point 
of  fact  every  citizen  is,  under  our  present  system  of  taxation,  a  tax- 
pa3-er.  Upon  every  article  of  food  that  enters  his  mouth,  and  every 
article  of  clothing  that  he  wears,  he  must  of  necessity  pay  taxes,  and 
double  taxes ;  for  the  merchant  from  whom  he  purchases,  charges 
him  not  only  the  duties  and  taxes  levied  by  the  government  on  those 
clothes  and  that  food,  but  also  his  commission  on  advancing  the  pay- 
ment of  those  duties  and  taxes,  besides  a  good  percentage  on  the 
merchant's  license- tax  he  has  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  conducting 
his  business,  and  on  the  rent  he  has  to  pay  for  his  place  of  business. 
Again,  every  citizen,  no  matter  of  what  age  or  sex,  pays  a  tax  on  the 
house  he  has  rented,  for  his  landlord 'is  sure  to  include  it  in  his  rental ; 
nay,  even  the  wages  that  he  gets  are  reduced  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  taxes  that  his  emploj'er  has  to  pay.  Hence  every  citizen 
has  to  bear  an  equal  share  of  the  burden  of  the  amounts  le\ied  in 
support  of  those  extravagant  militarj'  armaments  ;  in  other  words,  it 
is  the  poorer,  and  not  the  wealthier  class,  upon  whom  the  burden  of 
taxation  chiefly  falls.  The  wealthier  class,  under  the  present  system 
of  taxation,  appear  to  pay  a  large  share  ;  but,  in  point  of  fact,  shove 
this  burden  from  their  shoulders  upon  those  of  the  poorer  class. 

As  for  the  other  point,  —  that  war  gives  employment  to  those  who 
otherwise  would  be  without  emploj'ment,  — I  have  to  sa}^  only,  that  if 
the  money  now  wasted  for  armaments  were  used  for  public  improve- 
ments, there  would  be  an  abundance  of  health}'  mind  as  well  as 
moi'al-improving  work  for  every  citizen,  and  no  one  would  need  to 
brutalize  or  Csesarize  himself  b}'  becoming  a  butcher  of  his  fellow- 
men. 

Work  for  all  men  and  education  for  all  men :  these  are  the  two 
great  levers  that  w-ill,  if  employed  as  I  have  sketched  out  throughout 
this  work,  secure  those  grand  aims  which  were  laid  down  in  the 
fundamental  principles  of  this  work  as  the  highest  ideal  which  the 
human  race  can  reach  under  Liberty  and  Law. 


LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 


PART    THIRD. 


(349> 


DOMESTIC     EELATIOI^S. 


CHAPTER    I. 

MAKRIAGE. 


Nature  has  separated  the  human  race,  for  the  puipose  of  its  per- 
petuation, into  sexes,  the  union  of  whicli  has  thus  become  the  most 
important  event  of  human  life.  In  one  way  or  another,  every  form 
of  legislation  has  attempted  to  regulate  this  union,  but  in  no  instance 
of  history,  except  the  monogamic  code  of  Moses,  has  this  regulation 
proceeded  from  rational  principles.  It  has  always  been  based  on 
traditional  notions  and  existing  facts  and  prejudices.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  of  infinite  importance  to  the  State ;  for  on  this  union  depends  the 
transmission  of  name  and  property,  and  therefore  it  is  one  of  the 
main  factors  in  the  realization  of  man's  freedom  and  self-determi- 
nation. 

The  reason  why  legislation  has  blundered  more  in  its  attempts  to 
regulate  the  union  of  the  sexes  than  in  almost  any  other  field,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  it  has  confounded  the  moral  with  the  legal 
point  of  view.  From  a  moral  point  of  view,  the  woman  is,  in  the 
union  of  the  sexes,  the  passive  element,  her  whole  activity  centering 
in  love ;  that  is,  in  the  surrendering  of  herself  to  the  chosen  one. 
She  cannot  have  any  other  active  motive  without  debasing  herself  in 
her  own  e3'es,  as  well  as  in  the  eyes  of  all  others,  —  without,  indeed, 
what  has  been  so  emphatically  termed  prostituting  herself.  The 
male,  on  the  contrary,  seeks  the  woman.  He  is  not  actuated  by  such 
love, — meaning  love  to  signify  the  surrendering  of  one's  self  to 
another  for  that  other's  sake,  —  and  could  not  have  that  motive  with- 
out debasing  himself  and  ths  woman  also.  No  man  can  surrender 
himself  to  a  woman,  with  the  self-conscious  motive  to  gratify  her, 
without  the  utmost   degradation,  whereas  woman   needs   that  very 

(351) 


352  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

motive  to  retain  her  self-esteem.  This  is  the  pecuharity  of  the  moral 
relation  between  the  sexes,  and  more  or  less  typified  in  all  physical 
phenomena,  as  well  as  recognized  by  universal  public  opinion. 

It  has  been  the  mistake  of  the  law-givers  to  take  cognizance  of  this 
moral  relation  and  apply  it  in  the  operation  of  the  law,  where  it 
necessarily  assumed  a  different  shape,  altogether  wrong  and  unjust. 
In  the  moral  world,  woman  does  not  take  lower  rank  because  her 
whole  activity  in  the  union  of  the  sexes  is  love,  nor  man  higher  rank 
because  his  activity  is  primarily  passionate.  Both  are  in  all  respects 
equal,  each  acting  according  to  her  and  his  organization.  But  under 
the  conception  of  law,  which  cannot  take  cognizance  of  love,  the 
passiveness  of  the  woman  placed  her  in  a  subordinate  position,  and 
thus  it  chanced  that  legislation  did  not  recognize  woman  as  the  equal 
of  man.  Hence  the  most  absurd  laws  regarding  matrimony,  the  re- 
lation between  the  sexes,  the  property  of  women,  and  inheritance,  — 
laws  that  have  been,  and  are  still,  the  disgrace  of  mankind,  and 
which  were  imposed  upon  woman  without  her  consent. 

I  propose  to  consider  these  matters  on  purely  rational  grounds, 
without  regard  to  traditional  notions  and  prejudices. 

It  is  clear  that  the  law  should  make  no  distinction  whatever  between 
man  and  woman  while  they  are  single,  or  between  men  and  widows. 
In  all  matters  of  property,  personal  right,  and  political  position  the 
law  should  apply  equally  to  both  sexes,  and  secure  to  each  the  power 
to  realize  the  greatest  good  and  happiness  from  the  fit  and  harmoni- 
ous exercise  of  all  the  faculties  of  their  minds  and  bodies. 

It  is  also  apparent  that  a  legislation  which  deprives  woman  of  her 
personality  during  marriage  is  barbarous,  and,  moreover,  absurd 
where  such  legislation  allows  divorces ;  for,  if  the  marriage  mei-ged 
the  woman's  personality  into  that  of  the  man,  how  could  any  subse- 
quent declaration  of  the  law  separate  that  personality  again  ?  It  may 
be  logical  enough  that  the  Church,  which  assumes  to  legislate  accord- 
ing to  the  moral  law,  should  entertain  this  view  of  having  the  wife's 
personality  once  and  forever  joined  with  that  of  the  husband ;  but  it 
was  a  strange  lapse  of  rational  procedure  that  the  common  law,  which 
pretends  to  look  upon  marriage  as  a  civil  contract,  should  have  re- 
tained alike  conception,  so  utterly  at  variance  with  this  its  fundamental 
principle.  No  man  loses  his  personality  by  entering  into  a  civil  con- 
tract. Why,  then,  should  a  woman  lose  hers?  In  her  moral  con- 
sciousness she  may  thus  submerge  hers,  and  may  be  bound  to  do  so ; 


DOMESTIC    RELATIONS.  353 

but  no  government,  unless  it  become  theocratic  and  a  hierarchy,  caa 
consider  this  view  of  internal  morality,  or  legislate  concerning  it. 

The  government  is  not  to  apply  the  moral  law,  which  addresses 
itself  purely  to  the  individual,  but  simply  to  furnish  the  means  of  its 
fullest  realization,  by  empowering  each  citizen  of  the  State  to  attain 
the  greatest  good,  happiness,  and  wisdom  for  himself  and  others. 

Hence  the  law  must  place  man  and  woman  in  all  respects  on  a 
footing  of  perfect  equality,  and  secure  to  the  married  woman  tlie 
same  rights  of  personality  which  are  claimed  for  the  husband.  The 
law,  regarding  marriage  purely  as  a  civil  contract  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose, should  be  advised  of  the  fact  that  the  contract  is  made,  and  of 
its  conditions,  if  there  be  any.  Hence  every  such  contract  should 
be  recorded  in  the  proper  public  office,  and  ever}^  failure  so  to  record 
it  should  subject  the  husband  to  a  fine. 

But  in  the  absence  of  any  written  or  other  evidence  of  marriage, 
the  cohabitation  of  a  man  and  woman  as  husband  and  wife  should 
constitute  marriage  ;  and  the  simple  cohabitation  of  man  and  woman, 
by  living  together  in  the  same  house,  occupying  the  same  apartments, 
and  deporting  themselves  as  if  they  were  married,  should  also  consti- 
tute marriage  in  fact,  whereby  both  parties  would  be  estopped  from 
denying  the  existence  of  the  marriage.  The  law  should  always,  in 
such  cases  of  cohabitation,  presume  marriage  to  exist,  thereby  sup- 
pressing prostitution  and  seduction  as  far  as  practicable. 

Concerning  the  conditions  of  marriage  contracts  where  they  exist, 
the}'  must  be  carried  out  according  to  their  intent  and  meaninsf,  but 
they  should  apply  only  to  propert}^  or  rights  tlien  existing;  as  to  all 
gains,  earnings,  and  profits  during  mai-ri:>ge,  tiiey  should  be  disposed 
of  according  to  the  principles  of  the  Code  Xnpoleon,  and  no  marrif.ge 
contract  should  affect  them,  except  in  cases  of  divorce.  The  law  of 
copartnership  would  apply,  with  the  exception  that  in  case  of  mar- 
riage the  relation  must  continue  during  life,  or  until  the  termination 
of  it  by  a  decree  of  divorce.  Any  other  rule  would  render  it  impos- 
sible for  the  law  to  provide  for  the  children,  by  regulating  the  trans- 
mission of  property  and  inheritance,  which  should  be  regulated  in 
accordance  with  a  code  requiring  the  descent  to  the  right  heirs  of 
the  deceased  party,  according  to  their  degrees  of  consanguinity,  so 
as  to  limit  all  devises  to  others  to  one-sixth  or  one-tenth  of  the  estate 
descending  in  such  cases.  No  parent  should  be  permitted  by  law  to 
exclude  the  children  born  in  lawful  wedlock  from  their  inheritance, 

23 


354  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

except  in  cases  of  gross  ingratitude,  or  rebellion  against  just  and 
legal  pai'ental  authority.  »• 

Divorces  should  be  granted,  where  both  parties  consent,  if  proper 
provisions  are  made  for  the  husband,  wife,  and  children,  and  ap- 
proved by  the  court.  If  either  party  objects  to  the  divorce,  the 
question  should  be  decided  by  the  court  according  to  justice  and 
equity,  under  all  the  circurustances  of  the  case ;  but  whenever  it  is 
manifest  that  a  fatal  disagreement  or  incompatibility  of  temper  exists 
between  the  parties,  the  divorce  should  be  granted,  for  the  marriage 
has  no  longer  any  real  existence  when  love  has  fled  and  a  divorce  is 
applied  for.  Indeed,  in  such  cases  cohabitation  of  husband  and  wife 
is  no  longer  a  sacrament,  as  the  Church  fondly  supposes,  but  flagrant 
prostitution  ;  and  a  state  of  divorce  is  much  preferable  to  a  state  of 
criminality.  All  marriage  contracts  should  provide  for  the  disposi- 
tion of  all  the  property  belonging  to  either  party  prior  to  the  mar- 
riage, in  case  of  a  divorce  being  decreed  by  the  court;  so  that  on 
the  happening  of  such  an  event  the  contract  would  govern  in  the 
division  of  the  estates,  unless  special  equities  were  shown  to  exist. 

Where  both  parties  consent  to  a  divorce,  and  the  marriage  contract 
provides  for  the  disposition  of  the  property  and  the  children  upon 
the  happening  of  such  an  event,  the  divorce  should  be  decreed  with- 
out any  proofs  or  examination  into  the  circumstances,  as  a  matter  of 
course.  But  if  either  party  consenting  to  the  divorce  should  set  up 
any  special  equitable  circumstances,  or  claims  to  the  property  or  the 
custody  of  the  children,  in  contravention  of  the  terms  of  the  ante- 
nuptial contract,  the  court  should  determine  them  when  the  divorce 
is  granted. 

No  disability  of  either  party  for  contracting  any  future  marriage 
should  ever  be  decreed  on  granting  a  divorce,  unless  it  appears  from 
the  evidence  on  the  hearing  that  the  guilty  party  is  of  unsound  mind, 
or  of  a  cruel  and  barbarous  nature,  dangerous  to  human  libert}'  or 
life,  in  which  case  such  guilty  party  may  be  forever  barred  from  con- 
tracting another  marriage. 

In  case  of  lunacy  or  insanity  of  one  of  the  parties  to  the  marriage, 
if  such  lunacy  or  insanity  becomes  incurable,  and  is  so  found  V)y  a 
jury,  the  other  party  to  the  marriage  should  be  able  to  obtain  a 
decree  of  divorce  on  condition  of  providing  for  and  securing  a  rea- 
sonable support  for  life  of  the  lunatic  or  insane  person. 

If  the  parties  contracting  marriage  do  not  desire  a  divorce  from 


DOMESTIC    RELATIONS.  355 

the  bonds  of  matrimony,  but  from  any  cause  determine  to  live  sepa- 
rate and  apart  from  each  othei-,  and  cannot  agree  to  a  division  of 
their  property  between  tliem,  and  as  to  the  custody  of  tlie  children, 
they  should  be  permitted  to  apply  to  the  court  for  a  decree  to  deter- 
mine their  just  rights  and  equities  under  all  the  circumstances  of 
their  case. 

If  either  party  compels  the  other,  in  such  case,  to  abandon  the 
homestead,  residence,  or  place  of  abode  of  husband  and  wife,  the 
injured  party  should  be  permitted  to  apply  to  the  court  for  a  reason- 
able support  and  maintenance  during  any  such  period,  or  for  life. 

In  all  cases  of  divorce  for  impotency,  the  court  may  decree  the 
party  demanding  a  divorce  for  such  reason  to  support  the  other 
part}'  during  life. 

The  rule  of  law  in  general  copartnerships  is,  that  each  partner  is 
responsible  for  the  debts  and  liabilities  of  the  firm  of  which  he  is  a 
member,  and  this  rule  should  appl}-  to  the  relation  of  husband  and 
wife  during  marriage,  if  there  is  no  contract.  There  should  be  a 
unity  of  interests  in  this  relation  during  its  continuance,  except  only 
so  far  as  this  may  be  changed  by  ante-nuptial  contracts. 

Marriage  being  a  civil  contract  made  under  the  law,  or  sanctioned 
by  it  when  it  exists  de  facto,  the  State  should  determine  the  age  for 
its  consummation,  the  disabilities  that  should  prevent  or  annul  it,  and 
the  impediments  to  its  existence  between  certain  persons.  The  act 
should  be  the  unbiased,  deliberate  resolve  of  the  parties  ;  no  other 
influence  but  pure,  disinterested  love  should  prompt  it,  and  both  par- 
ties should  know  precisely  in  what  legal  relation  they  will  thereafter 
stand  to  each  other.  Each  party  should  be  free  from  all  disorders  of 
a  hereditary  character,  or  otherwise  tending  to  shorten  life  or  to 
afflict  the  children  that  may  be  born  of  the  marriage,  and  all  possible 
precautions  should  be  taken  to  prevent  the  matrimonial  union  of  dis- 
eased or  unsound  pe'rsons. 

It  is,  however,  the  interest  of  the  State,  as  the  only  effective 
remedy  against  prostitution  and  seduction,  that  reasonably  early  mar- 
riages should  be  encouraged.  Under  such  a  system  of  schools  as  I 
have  proposed,  whereby  every  pupil  will  be  educated  for  a  vocation 
in  life,  the  contracting  parties  would  both  be  able  to  earn  a  living, 
and  early  marriages  would  become  the  rule  instead  of  the  excep- 
tion. The  chief  obstacles  to  marriage  in  early  life  are,  the  uncer- 
tainty of   the   bridegroom   that   he  will  be  able  to  make    a   livings 


356  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

and  a  fear  that  the  gu-1  whom  he  intends  to  make  his  wife  may  not 
have  the  ability  or  inclination  to  conduct  their  new  household  on 
economical  principles.  It  is  somewhat  singular  that  the  extravagant 
mode  of  living  in  our  free  countrj'^  should  in  this  way  place  the 
same  restraint  upon  our  marriages  which  in  many  countries  of 
Europe  interpose  to  prevent  them.  There  the  poor  young  people^ 
who  would  gladly  marrj^,  and  be  content  jointly  to  face  the  future  by 
the  exercise  of  industry  and  economy,  are  met  by  the  interference  of 
government,  in  some  form  or  other,  lest  they  or  their  offspring  should 
become  a  burden  to  the  community ;  here  the  young  withhold  from 
marriage  because  the}^  themselves  contemplate  this  result.  Tlie  con- 
sequence, in  Europe,  is  a  cohabitation  of  the  couple  without  the  mar- 
riage ceremon}^,  a  state  of  things  alread}^  so  common  in  Vienna  that 
legalized  marriages  among  the  poor  are  the  exception.  In  our  own 
country  the  result  has  been  an  increase  of  prostitution,  which  la 
steadily  undermining  the  health,  morality,  and  happiness  of  the 
people. 

My  system  of  schools  proposes  to  check  the  growth  of  this  evil  at 
its  very  root,  by  furnishing  to  ever}'  man  and  woman  of  the  country 
an  education  for  a  vocation  that  will  alwa3's  secure  him  or  her  a  live- 
lihood, and  also  by  teaching  ever}'  woman  how  to  conduct  a  house- 
hold in  the  most  economical  way,  and  carry  it  on  upon  safe  business- 
principles. 

This  would  also  check  the  tendency  in  some  women  to  extrav- 
agance, and  living  beyond  the  legitimate  means  of  their  husbands'' 
incomes,  which  is  the  ruin  of  so  many  business  men,  who  are  often 
led  into  hazardous  ventures  and  reckless  speculations  in  order  to 
gratify  the  extravagant  tastes  of  proud,  idle,  or  vain  wives. 

As  the  system  of  law  herein  proposed  will  become  the  surest  bul- 
wark of  defence  against  the  enslavement  of  woman,  under  the  differ- 
ent forms  of  despotism  that  have  hitherto  oppressed  her,  it  is  espe- 
cially the  duty  of  woman  to  aid  the  establishment  of  this  system  of 
government  by  all  the  means  in  her  power,  and  particularly  by  setting 
such  an  example  of  economy,  industry,  self-sacrifice,  frugality,  and 
temperance  in  all  things,  in  the  household  and  in  society,  as  will 
show  her  to  be  worthy  of  that  full  equality  with  man  under  the  laws 
to  which  this  system  would  elevate  her. 

It  will  become  the  duty  of  the  Federal  government  to  establish  the 
monogamic  system  of  marriage  as  a  universal  rule  in  the  States  of 


DOMESTIC    RELATIONS.  357 

the  repulilic.  This  can  be  accomplished  only  by  an  amendment  of 
the  Constitution  of  tlie  United  States  for  that  purpose,  prohibiting  in 
all  parts  of  the  republic  that  polygam}'  which  has  already  raised  its 
poisonous  crest  in  Utah,  and  is  beginning  to  show  its  demoralizing 
effects  as  the  Chinese  immigration  increases.  Polj^gamy  is  the 
foundation-stone  of  all  the  Asiatic  despotisms,  and  under  its  corrup- 
tions the  female  sex  has  everywhere  sunk  to  a  depth  of  slavery  and 
•degradation  almost  inconceivable.  Human  liberty  and  free  govern- 
ments are  wholly  incompatible  with  polygamy  or  prostitution  in  any 
form. 

It  will  appear  from  the  foregoing  that  I  claim  for  every  individual, 
male  or  female,  the  same  position  of  political  rights  and  equality  in 
the  State,  the  husband  always  representing  the  head  of  the  family, 
according  to  natural  laws.  This  should  be  no  new  claim  to  those 
who  have  examined  the  history  of  our  race.  That  eminent  English 
jurist,  Sir  Henry  Maine,  has  shown  most  conclusivel}^,  in  his  recent 
Oxford  lectures,  that  woman,  in  early  history,  did  occupy  that  very 
station  to  which  the  advocates  of  free  representative  governments 
now  seek  to  elevate  her  again.  Through  the  Roman  law,  the  Hindoo 
law,  and  the  laws  of  Western  Europe,  all  these  being  branches  of  the 
original  law  of  the  Aryan  race,  he  has  traced  the  same  original  notion 
of  the  full  equality  of  the  sexes.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  sep- 
arate property  of  the  wife  was  conceded  by  the  old  Hindoo  laws  far 
more  thoroughly  than  it  is  even  now  by  most  of  the  States  of  modern 
Europe. 

The  influence  of  the  hierarchical  teachings  of  Brahma,  combined 
with  the  spread  of  pttlygamic  practices,  has  gradually  lowered  the 
position  of  women  in  the  Orient  below  that  even  of  the  slave,  while 
in  our  own  civilization  woman  has  passed  through  the  reverential 
phase  of  chivalry  —  which  assigned  to  her  a  romantically  exalted 
station  —  to-  her  present  condition  of  almost  absolute  equality  with 
man.  It  now  only  remains  to  secure  to  her  this  rational  condition 
for  all  time,  on  proper  principles,  so  as  to  perpetuate  our  free  institu- 
tions upon  the  solid  foundations  of  universal  suffrage  and  political 
equality  for  all  men  and  women,  in  their  triune  characteristics  of 
knowledge,  wealth,  and  individuality. 


358  LIBEKTY    AND    LAW. 

CHAPTEE   II. 

CHILDREN. 

The  children  are  to  become  the  future  citizens  of  the  State,  and 
upon  their  proper  education  and  development  the  ultimate  success  of 
our  free  republican  institutions  depends.  The  addition  to  our  popu- 
lation arises  from  natural  increase  and  immigration  from  foreign 
countries. 

Hitherto  immigration  has  been  allowed  to  flow  into  our  States  from 
every  quarter,  without  any  proper  restriction  or  supervision  ;  and  it 
has  already  become  manifest  that  no  State  can  safely  continue  this 
policy  without  subjecting  its  citizens  to' all  kinds  of  demoraUzing, 
hierarchical,  and  corrupting  influences.  The  Federal  government 
alone  can  regulate  this  matter,  and  it  is  the  plain  duty  of  Congress  to 
pass  laws  preventing  the  immigration  of  slaves,  criminals,  vagrants, 
pauper  children,  and  other  vagabonds, — the  human  wrecks  of  des- 
potic civilizations.  So  far  as,  the  wretched  pauper  and  orphan  chil- 
dren are  concerned,  the  State  should  assert  its  right  to  educate  and 
provide  for  them  at  the  pulilic  expense  ;  and  as  for  the  children  of 
citizens  or  foreigners  born  here,  it  is  of  the  greatest  interest  to  the 
State  that  they  should  receive  the  best  education  practicable,  and  be 
perfected  in  the  department  of  life  they  may  choose  for  their  respec- 
tive vocations.  The  system  of  schools  hereinbefore  described  would 
furnish  the  means  to  accomplish  this  beneficent  object,  and  increase 
the  value  and  usefulness  of  the  generation  growing  up  under  it  more 
than  a  hundred-fold,  and  diminish  crime  and  immorality  in  the  same 
proportion. 

But  the  question  arises,  Will  the  parents  take  advantage  of  these 
public  means  for  education,  and  send  their  children  to  the  State 
schools?  The  child  naturally  belongs  to  the  parents,  who  are  its 
natural  protectors  and  instructors.  Nature  gave  them  offspring  to 
educate  and  fit  them  for  active  life.  The  right  of  parents  to  control 
their  children  and  exercise  just  authority  over  them  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned, and  for  this  reason  the  State  has  no  right  to  compel  parents 
to  send  them  to  the  public  schools.  In  all  these  matters  there  should 
be  no  compulsion.  The  schools  proposed  to  be  established  would 
necessarily  be  the  best,  for  all  purposes  of  general  and  special  in- 


DOMESTIC    RELATIONS.  359 

struction,  ever  founded  in  any  age  of  the  world ;  but  private  schools 
ma}'  be  founded  upon  the  same  plan  and  carried  on,  or  the  existing 
schools  of  all  kinds  ma^^  be  remodelled  and  reformed  so  as  to  carry 
out  the  same  objects.  Though  this  would  involve  an  unnecessaiy 
expense  to  parties  undertaking  the  enterprise  for  private  or  sectarian 
purposes,  the  right  of  doing  so  would  be  unquestionable. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  no  doubt  that  a  large  majority  of  the  children 
in  the  State,  especially  in  tlie  agricultural  districts,  would  attend  the 
State  public-schools ;  and  whenever  a  child  over  the  age  of  ten  years 
should  appeal  for  education  and  admission  to  the  State  schools,  and 
it  should  appear  that  its  parents  do  not  educate  it,  then  it  should  be 
admitted,  maintained  if  necessary-,  and  taught  at  the  public  expense. 
Children  having  no  known  parents,  or  whose  parents  have  died,  leav- 
ing them  destitute,  should  be  maintained  and  educated  at  the  public 
expense  for  a  vocation.  So  also  the  children  who  may  be  abandoned 
by  their  parents,  guardians,  or  protectors,  should  be  placed  under 
the  guardianship  of  the  State  and  educated.  Our  "  houses  of  refuge," 
etc.,  conducted  as  they  are  at  present,  are  a  disgrace  to  civilization. 
In  like  manner,  all  children  who  are  sent  out  by  their  parents  to  beg, 
in  any  guise,  or  to  become  outcasts,  thieves,  oi-  vagrants  in  society, 
should  be  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  State  and  educated. 

In  order  to  provide  for  the  better  moral  training  and  management 
of  all  such  children,  a  system  might  be  adopted  to  place  them  with 
families  in  the  rural  districts  having  few  or  no  children  of  their  own, 
so  that  they  might  be  adopted  if  possible,  and  where  they  could  attend 
the  common  and  agricultural  schools,  and  enjoy  the  benefit  of  domes- 
tic care  and  instruction  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  which,  in  the 
majority  of  instances,  would  be  very  trilling,  as  the  child  after  twelve 
years  of  age  would  generally  be  able  to  earn  its  own  living,  without 
interfering  with  its  proper  education  for  the  vocation  of  a  farmer  or 
for  other  business.  If  such  children  should  prove  to  have  great  intel- 
lectual powers,  they  should  not  be  limited  to  any  special  vocation, 
but  might  pass  on  to  the  highest  schools  and  the  university. 

No  partiality  or  favoritism  should  be  shown  in  the  examination  or 
grading  of  the  scholars  in  any  school,  but  true  merit  and  excellence, 
without  regard  to  any  extraneous  circumstances  of  position,  family, 
or  wealth  of  parents,  should  be  the  only  criterion  for  the  advance- 
ment of  scholars  to  the  various  grades  of  schools.  Thus  the  system 
of  education  would  be  made  to  harmonize  with  the  theory  upon  which 


360  LIBERTY'    AND    LAW. 

the  government  is  based,  and  the  scholars  would  learn  the  principles 
of  justice,  morality,  equality,  liberty,  and  law  as  they  progressed  in 
their  studies. 

In  all  cases  of  criminal  acts  by  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age, 
the  reformatory  measures  should  be  arranged  with  as  little  exposure 
or  publicity  as  possible.  The  present  mode  of  dealing  with  children 
criminals  is  simpl}'  barbarous  and  immoral,  resulting  in  dishonor  and 
unnecessary  expense  to  the  State.  All  children  who  may  become 
wards  of  the  State  should  have  every  protection  and  advancement 
they  may  need,  and  they  should  be  treated  in  the  schools  with  the 
same  regard,  kindness,  and  attention  as  any  other  scholars. 

All  the  sanitary  measures  and  moral  instruction  recommended  in 
this  ^\'<  k  should  be  fully  carried  out  and  practised  in  all  the  schools 
to  be  estabUslied,  or  hereafter  to  be  brought  within  the  scope  of  the 
system  herein  proposed,  so  that  the  graduate  of  either  of  the  schools 
will  pass  into  the  scenes  of  active  life  as  fully  prepared  to  meet  all  its 
trials  and  vicissitudes  as  practicable.  His  certificate  of  graduation 
would  be  a  letter  of  credit  upon  the  world  of  intelligence  and  practical 
iictivity^  that  must  insure  him  a  livelihood  and  independence  if  he  be 
diligent,  prudent,  and  frugal. 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  361 


THE    EI^D    OF    HISTORY. 


CHAPTER     I. 

THE   THEOCRATICAL   TENDENCY   OF   HISTORY. 

I  have  shown  in  the  opening  chapter  of  this  work  that  history 
began  with  a  theocracy,  —  the  rule  of  God  upon  earth,  through  the 
direct  inspiration  of  men  in  a  highly  developed  race,  —  and  in  subse- 
quent chapters  I  have  traced  out  the  gradual  disappearance  of  that 
benign  form  of  government,  and  the  substitution  in  its  stead  of  the 
most  diverse  kinds  of  despotisms,  democracies,  republics,  and  feudal- 
isms ;  all  following  each  other  at  various  intervals,  until  mankind  has 
at  last  arrived  at  a  stage  of  development  when  the  establishment  of 
a  true  government  in  the  form  of  a  federative  republic,  securinor 
equality  of  rights,  has  become  possible.  In  the  foregoing  parts 
of  the  work  I  have  sought  to  point  out  the  defects  to  which  our 
republican  institutions  have  been  exposed,  and  to  suggest  their  reme- 
dies. But  even  if  all  those  proposed  remedies  should  be  adopted, 
the  question  would  still  remain :  Is  this  the  end  of  the  history  of 
mankind,  and  shall  mankind  alwaj^s  remain  subject  to  a  government 
of  law?  Is  there  not  a  higher  end, — an  end  to  attain  which  the 
government  of  law  is  merely  a  means?  These  questions  have  already 
been  proposed  and  answered,  to  some  extent,  in  Chapter  I.  of  Public 
Education  ;  but  here,  at  the  end  of  the  book,  I  wish  once  more  to 
call  attention  to,  and  to  give  a43erhaps  more  specific  answer  to  them. 
This  answer  is,  that  as  human  history  originated  in  a  primitive  theoc- 
racy, so  shall  it  end  in  a  perfected  theocracy.  But  it  began  in  a 
direct,  unconscious,  divine  inspiration  ;  and  it  shall  end  in  a  clearly 
understood  knowledge  of  the  Divine  will.  And  the  means  by  which 
this  end  is  ultimately  to  be  attained  lies  in  the  universal  public  edu- 


362  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

cation  to  which  I  have  just  now  alluded.  Moreover,  in  that  part 
of  ray  work  I  have  spoken  of  this  end  only  in  the  terms  of  the  rule 
of  the  moral  law ;  which,  strictly  speaking,  is  not  a  theocracy.  But 
let  us  see  whether  we  cannot  arrive  at,  and,  indeed,  shall  not  be 
forced  to  climb  to  a  higher  stand-point  than  that  of  the  moral  law. 

The  legal  relation  between  men  is  one  of  the  phenomena  of  the 
human  mind  ;  the  moral  relation  is  another.  But  supreme  over  both 
ranks  the  relation  between  man  and  the  Deity.  And  as  all  phe- 
nomena of  the  human  mind  are  intimately  connected  with  each  other; 
and  considering  that  religion,  as  the  highest  of  these  manifestations 
of  the  soul,  interpenetrates  all  human  affairs,  — whether  legal,  social, 
scientific,  or  historical, — it  may  well  be  entitled  to  at  least  a  kind 
of  supplementary  treatment  in  a  book  of  political  economy.  There 
is  another  reason  why  it  may  claim  a  place  even  in  the  very  ground- 
work of  such  a  book.  This  is,  that  religion,  like  all  other  human 
phenomena,  has  an  historical  existence  apart  fr9tn  its  purely  internal 
manifestation ;  which  historical  character  necessarily  brings  it  in 
constant  contact  with  law  and  government.  In  short,  religion,  apart 
from  being  inspiration,  is  also  represented  in  history  as  a  Church, 
to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  inspirations. 

I  shall  therefore  introduce  the  subject  here,  at  the  very  close  of 
the  book,  in  this  its  twofold  character ;  considering,  first,  the  nature 
of  religion  and  its  relation  to  other  manifestations  of  the  human 
mind  ;  and,  second,  the  cliaracter  of  the  Church  and  its  relation  to  the 
State.  In  this  consideration  I  shall,  of  course,  keep  utterly  aloof 
from  sectarian  views  and  prejudices,  and  consider  religion  simplv  in 
its  universal  character,  as  one  of  the  inborn  phenomena  of  mind,  and 
the  Church  simply  as  the  organization  of  any  religious  body,  whether 
that  body  call  itself  Christian,  Hebrew,  Mohammedan,  Mormon,  or 
Buddhist.  Just  as  religion  has  in  all  its  forms  the  same  fundamental 
elements,  so  the  Church  and  priestcraft  reveal  everywhere  the  same 
elemental  characteristics,  chief  of  which  is  the  desire  to  rule  supreme 
over  their  fellow-men.  There  are  two  essential  relations  between 
man,  ag  a  rational  being,  and  the  spirit-world  in  general.  The  one  we 
have  examined  all  along  throughout  the  book ;  it  is  the  relation  of 
law,  which  connects  man  with  his  fellow-beings  under  the  form  of  an 
established  government.  The  other  relation  connects  him  with  the 
universal  fountain  of  spiritual  life,  whom  men  call  God.  That  is  the 
relation  of  religion,  and  though  it  also  manifests  itself  under  a  form 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  363 

of  government,  that  oovevnment  is  veiled  in  natural  phenomena  not 
directly  visible,  but  appearing  through  the  ages  as  a  divine  order  of 
natural  inspiration. 

In  some  form  or  other,  mankind  has  always  had  both  forms,  and 
willingly  subjected  itself  to  their  rule.  Even  the  most  barbarous  of 
savages  have,  and  have  always  had,  a  government  of  law  and  a  gov- 
ernment of  religion,  and  at  all  times  have  given  the  higher  rank  to 
the  latter,  and  considered  its  commands  the  higher  law. 

Originally,  as  I  have  explained  elsewhere,  the  appearance  of  most 
of  our  race  was  in  a  nomadic  condition.*  In  this  primitive  state  the 
legal  relation  had  barely  any  chance  to  manifest  itself.  Man  existed 
only  as  an  individual,  or,  at  the  utmost,  as  a  family  member,  but  not 
as  the  member  of  a  people,  or  the  citizen  of  a  State  organization.  He 
had  no  relation  to -other  men,  except  such  as  arose  from  the  pui'ely 
subjective  relation  of  hospitality ;  even  as  to  this  day  tliis  condition 
of  things  exists  amongst  the  Arabs,  the  Tartars,  the  Laplanders,  and 
the  Esquimaux.  But  in  proportion  as  this  legal  relation  did  not  man- 
ifest itself  in  the  consciousness  of  man,  his  religious  consciousness 
exhibited  greater  activity,  and  the  worship  of  God  was  all  the  more 
intense.  It  was  natural  that  this  worship  should  at  first  have  shown 
itself  more  as  a  worship  of  nature ;  natural  that  it  should,  in  many 
instances,  have  taken  the  sun  for  the  symbol  of  its  Divinity ;  and 
natural  that,  together  with  the  imaging  of  the  Divinity  as^the  sun,  or 
Light  (Ormuzd),  there  should  have  arisen  an  imaging  of  an  opposite 
power,  hostile  to  the  Light,  —  of  Darkness,  or  the  Devil  (Ahriman). 
We  find  this  sun-worship  not  only  in  the  cradle  of  mankind,  the 
Orient,  but  equally  intense  amongst  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  and  the 
Incas  of  Peru.  Nay,  we  find  it  everywhere,  except  amongst  the 
people  whose  remotest  ancestors  had  spoken  face  to  face  with  God, 
and  delivered  their  traditions  of  His  immaterial  nature  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  —  the  Hebrews.  Indeed,  the  simple  witnessing  of 
the  phenomenon  of  the  seasons  made  this  sun-worship  and  the  doc- 
trine of  two  antagonistic  principles  of  light  and  darkness  almost  a 
necessity. 

Not  onl}'  did  the  grand  Orb  of  Light  disappear  every  evening,  and 
overcome  the  Prince  of  Darkness  again  every  morning,  but  what 
seemed  most  singular  was,  that  at  the  close  of  ever3'^  summer  season 
the  God  of  Light  seemed  to  lose  his  power,  and  the  God  of  Darkness 
kept  gaining  every  day,  till  his  victory  seemed  assured.     Hence  the 


364  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

joy,  the  immense  exaltation,  when,  after  the  winter  solstice,  and  after 
the  sun  had  seemingly  stood  still  awhile,  as  if  doubtful  whether  or 
not  to  surrender,  it  suddenly  advanced  again  on  high,  gaining  in  light 
and  strength  every  day,  till  in  spring-time  the  Sun-god  had  recovered 
all  his  former  glory.  Hence  the  universal  celebration  of  that  solstice 
at  our  Christmas  time :  the  day  when  the  Prince  of  Darkness  was 
overcome  and  the  sun  shone  forth  as  the  redeemer  of  mankind. 
Every  mythology  tells  this  story  in  its  own  way ;  and  even  the  dead 
granite  blocks  of  the  great  pyramid  at  Jeesah  and  the  obelisks  pro- 
claim it  in  their  astronomic^  construction  as  clearly  as  the  fables  of 
Osiris,  Dionysos,  or  Ahriman  and  Ormuzd.  It  were  well,  however, 
were  we  Christians  also  to  remember  that  this  form  of  religion,  Za- 
bseism,  is,  like  our  own  religion,  essentially  monotheistic,  — a  worship 
of  one  God,  —  and  that  in  this  form  it  still  lives  in  Eastern  Asia,  for 
instance,  as  it  lived  among  the  primitive  races  of  men. 

Even  Moses  ^  recognizes  this  planetary  worship  as  thus  related  to 
the  pure  monotheism  of  the  Hebrew  reUgion.  He  sa3's,  in  prohibit- 
ing the  worship  of  God  in  any  other  than  a  spiritual  form:  "Take 
heed,  therefore,  *  *  *  lest  thou  lift  up  thine  eyes  unto  Heaven, 
and  when  thou  seest  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  even  all  the 
hosts  of  Heaven,  shouldst  be  driven  to  worship  them  and  serve  them, 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  divided  uyito  all  nations  under  the  ivhole 
heaven.'"  Meaning,  that  all  nations  except  the  Hebrew  nation  might 
serve  the  countless  hosts  of  Heaven,  as  emblematic  of  the  spiritual 
Father  of  Heaven.  Whereto  Father  Clemens,  of  Alexandria,  ob- 
serves in  his  Stromata:  "He  gave  also  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars 
to  the  service  of  the  ctdtus,  which  God  established  for  the  heathens, 
lest  these,  becoming  wholly  godless,  should  perish  altogether.  But 
those  who,  in  spite  of  this  concession,  shall  worship  sculptured  im- 
ages, are  damned  unless  the}^  repent." 

But  as  the  nomadic  life  of  man,  in  the  manner  in  which  I  have 
indicated  in  another  chapter,  changed  into  that  of  agricultural  and 
cit}-  life,  his  patriarchal  life,  with  its  intimate  connection  with  a  uni- 
versal Divine  Power,  or  with  nature  in  the  sun-worship,  changed  also 
in  all  its  aspects,  but  in  none  more  portentously  so  than  in  its  religious 
phase.  Instead  of  being  the  intimate  friend  and  companion  of  nature, 
man  souglit  only  after  means  how  best  to  subdue  nature  to  his  ends. 


'  DeuteronoiH}-,  chap,  iv :  19. 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  365 

In  their  city  life,  men  were  compelled  to  establish  governments  and 
Jaws ;  and  from  their  establishment  resulted  necessarily  the  organiza- 
tion of  States,  and  the  subjection  of  whatever  each  State  could  lay 
hold  of ;  and  the  universal  God  of  primitive  man  became  a  special 
national  God  for  each  particular  State.  The  Jews  had  their  Jeliovah, 
as  the  Greeks  their  Zeus,  the  Norsemen  their  Tlior,  and  the  Mexicans 
their  Huitzli  Putzli. 

Whilst  these  changes  took  place  in  the  religious  life  of  the  people, 
their  legal  relation  changed  ever  more  into  the  form  of  a  pure  despot- 
ism ;  and  partly  in  consequence  of  this  change,  and  partly  as  the 
result  of  their  transformation  of  the  Deity,  their  God  also  became  an 
angry  and  despotic  God,  hating  men  for  their  fall  from  their  original 
life  and  worship,  and  visiting  upon  them  His  wrath  and  displeasure, 
mostly  without  discrimination  or  reason.  Every  advance  in  the  new 
civilization  created  by  man  was  a  source  of  infinite  anger  to  these 
new  gods ;  as  witness  the  fate  of  poor  Prometheus,  who  first  taught 
man  the  use  of  fire  for  the  advancement  of  the  mechanical  arts,  and 
who  was  as  cruelly  punished  for  his  temerity  in  teaching  man  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  as  were  Adam  and  Eve  for  tasting  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge. 

Following  out  this  new  change  of  viewing  the  relation  between  man 
and  God,  it  was  natural  that  the  whole  aspect  of  the  existing  world 
should  change.  It  was  now  believed  that  the  world  had  fallen  into 
irretrievable  evil,  and  that  man  was  given  over  to  sin  and  the  devil. 
To  appease  the  God  of  Anger  —  the  Bel  of  Babylon,  the  Moloch  of 
thp  Bible,  and  the  Shiva  of  India  —  it  was  held  necessary  to  make 
sacrifices,  and  especially  human  sacrifices.  The  whole  history  .of 
religion  is  full  of  these  dreadful  manifestations  of  man's  fear  of  the 
God  of  Wrath.  At  the  time  of  Cortez's  stay  in  the  capital  of  Mexico, 
hundreds  of  human  victims  were  sacrificed  each  day,  whilst  the  blood- 
drunk  priests  danced  their  dervish  dances  and  chanted  their  devilish 
songs  on  the  steps  of  the  temple. 

But  man  could  not,  for  any  length  of  time,  remain  in  this  belief  of 
an  angry,  unappeasable  God,  —  the  thought  was  too  hideous.  Thus 
there  arose,  conjointly  with  it,  the  conception  of  a  youthful  God, — 
a  son  in  the  flesh  of  the  unrevealed  God, — who,  in  the  fulness  of 
his  love  for  men,  sought  to  procure  their  forgiveness  and  immortality 
by  his  own  deatli  for  his  fellow-brethren  of  the  human  race. 

With  the  ancient  Egyptians  this  redeemer  was  known  as  Osiris, 


366  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

the  son  of  their  Snn-god  ;  but  their  elaboration  of  his  worship  and 
plan  of  redemption  stands  so  unique  and  peculiar  in  the  history  of 
religion,  that  it  is  well  worth  a  special  examination. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  then  had  a  conception  of  a  Supreme  Deity, 
and,  moreover,  of  a  Deity  manifested  in  a  fourfold  way,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  trinity  conception  of  most  of  the  Christians.  This 
four-foldness  they  represented  in  this  manner :  The  Supreme  Deity  is 
mysterious,  unknown  (Ammon,  a  name  which  only  the  priesthood 
dared  to  pronounce),  but  manifests  itself  to  men  as  spirit  (ether), 
matter,  time,  and  space.  As  time  and  space,  it  is  infinite,  and  as 
spirit  also ;  but  as  matter,  it  is  necessarily  limited,  —  that  is  to  say, 
the  universe  is  to  be  conceived  as  a  limited  whole,  as  a  globe  of  con- 
fined dimensions.  Now  this  is  philosophical  enough,  and  may  be 
considered  as  expressing  the  same  idea  which  Fichte  states  in  this 
manner:  The  pure  ego  cannot  posit  (become  conscious  of)  itself 
without  positing  itself  as  a  divisible  ego  (a  number  of  intelhgences, 
a  universe  of  men,  spirits),  and  at  the  same  time  as  a  divisible  non- 
ego  (a  material  world),  and  thereby'  positing  an  infinite  space  for  the 
world  of  matter  and  an  infinite  time  for  the  world  of  spirit.  This  is 
the  true  representation ;  and  it  is  strange,  that  it  should  have  been  so 
luminously  set  forth  in  the  records  and  traditions  of  ancient  'Egypt, 
as  may  still  be  read  in  the  adobe  libraries  of  Thebes.  Thej'  represent 
that  there  was  no  creation  of  the  world  out  of  nothing,  as  taught  in 
the  Bible,  but  a  gradual  evolution,  or  development.  It  was  a  philo- 
sophical view  of  things,  such  as  would  naturally  suggest  itself  to  a 
common-sense  mind,  looking  upon  the  phenomena  of  nature  with  a 
clear  eye,  and  endeavoring  to  account  for  their  existence  and  arrange- 
ment. It  is,  indeed,  the  mode  of  regarding  the  universe,  which  we 
meet  amongst  all  primitive  people,  whereas  the  doctrine  of  a  Divine 
creation  of  the  world  out  of  nothing  is  of  much  later  date,  and  of 
purel}'  speculative  origin.^ 

But  the  Egyptians  taught,  furthermore,  that  the  life  of  men  was 
infinite ;  that  as  the  souls  of  men  had  existed  from  the  beginning,  so 
would  they  continue  to  live  without  end.  Th^s  doctrine,  however, 
gave  rise  in  their  creed  to  what  seems  to  us  of  the  present  day  one  of 
the  strangest  beliefs  ever  entertained  by  mankind.     I  allude  to  the 


1  See  History  of  Occidental  Philosophy.    By  Dr.  Edward  Roeth.     Second 
Edition.     Mannheim,  18G2. 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  367 

transmigration  of  souls.  Their  idea  was,  that  the  spirits  of  men  were 
originally  gods,  or  angels,  who,  through  rebellion,  had  made  them- 
selves subject  to  punishment,  and  were  consequently  put  into  human 
bodies.  This  life  was  thus  a  penitence  to  be  worked  out,  a  state 
wherein  those  souls  were  to  purify  themselves  and  work  out  their 
salvation.  Those  men  who  succeeded  in  effecting  this  purification 
were  supposed  to  go  to  Heaven  and  rejoin  the  gods.  Those,  on  the 
other  hand,  who  did  not  succeed  were  supposed  to  become  reincor- 
porated in  other  bodies,  — human  or  animal,  — until  they  had  finally 
become  purified  and  fitted  for  immortality.  The  redeemer  for  these 
fallen  ones  was  Osiris,  son  of  the  Sun-god,  Ra,  who  every  evening, 
with  sundown,  was  represented  as  going  down  to  Hades,  and  by  his 
grace  lifting  them  up  in  the  morning  to  endless  life  in  the  blessed 
regions  of  the  Sun-god's  dwelling-place. 

That  I  have  not  exaggerated  the  religious  culture  of  the  ancient 
Egj'ptians,  will  appear  from  the  following  extracts  from  the  so-called 
"Holy  Legend '"(£?>'«?  loyn^),  which  Pythagoras  brought,  with  all 
his  other  acquirements,  from  Thebes  to  Greece,  and  made  the  foun- 
dation of  his  religious  teachings  to  those  of  his  scholars  who  —  after 
many  years  of  probation,  of  mathematical,  musical,  astronomical, 
medical,  legal,  and  other  studies,  and  a  carefully  watched,  pure  mode 
of  living,  under  prescribed  rules  —  were  at  last  deemed  worthy  to  be 
initiated  into  the  deepest,  the  most  religious  doctrines  of  his  lore. 

In  regard  to  the  physical  lore  that  Pythagoras  brought  from 
Egypt,  I  need  simpl}^  refer  to  the  science  of  music,  which  he  taught 
the  Greeks ;  the  Pythagorean  problem,  which  embraces  the  whole  of 
Euclid ;  and  the  dogmas  of  the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  its  revolution 
around  the  sun,  and  rotation  on  its  own  axis  ;  all  of  which  sciences  he 
brought  from  Egypt  to  Greece,  as  is  well  substantiated,  not  only  by 
second-hand  Greek  accounts  and  original  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  but 
also  by  the  great  pyramid  of  Jeesah,  that  arises  in  the  deserts  of 
Northern  Africa.  Naturall}'  enough,  we  always  speak  of  the  discov- 
ery, that  the  earth  should  be  regarded  as  coursing  around  the  sun, 
as  a  modern  one  of  the  Copernican  system ;  but  Copernicus  lived 
some  fifteen  hundred  years  after  Christ,  and  Pythagoras  some  seven 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  the  great  pyramid  of  Egypt,  from 
which  country  Pythagoras  brought  his  lore,  and  which  teaches  that 
lore  in  its  giant  granite  blocks,  was  erected  more  than  four  thousand 
years  ago.     And  there  is  no  historical  difficulty  in  tracing  the  spread 


368  LIBERTY    AND    LAW 

of  this  astronomical  lore  from  the  priests  of  Thebes  to  Pythagoras  of 
Greece,  and  from  Pythagoras  to  Hipparchiis.  Nay,  the  so-called 
Copernican  system  flourished  in  Europe  several  hundred  years  after 
Christ.  Copernicus  received  the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  and  thereby 
paved  the  way  for  our  modern  science  of  astronomy. 

So  far  as  the  religious  lore  which  Pythagoras  brought  from  Egypt 
is  concerned,  the  ''Holy  Legend"  must  speak  for  itself.  It  has, 
it  is  true,  been  traditionally  ascribed  to  a  mythical  Orpheus ;  but 
ancient  historical  records  as  well  as  the  text  itself  —  in  tlie  purest 
Greek  —  fix  Pythagoras  as  its  author,  and  manifold  testimony  of 
other  kinds  leave  no  doubt  that  it  is  a  mere  translation  from  the 
Bible  of  ancient  Egypt,  as  taught  to  Pythagoras  by  the  priests  of 
Thebes. 

"  Oh,  Thou  ruler  of  ocean  and  land,  of  ether  and  abyss.  Thou 
who  causest  the  firm  Olympus  to  rock  to  and  fro  at  thy  thunder. 
Thou,  before  whom  the  spirits  shudder,  and  e'en  Thy  gods  trem- 
ble; whom  e'en  the  fates  obey,  they  to  all  other' things  unimpres- 
sible.  Oh,  Thou  eternal  father  of  mother  nature,  to  whose  will 
all  things  bend ;  who  covers  the  heavens  with  clouds ;  before  whose 
lightning  the  ether  divides.  Thine  is  the  order  of  the  stars ;  they 
course  after  Thy  unchangeable  command.  Thine  is  young  spring, 
aglow  with  purple  flowers.  Thine  the  storm  of  the  winter,  which 
wafts  the  snowdrifts  onward.  Thine  the  Bacchic-jubilating  autumn, 
which  distributes  fruits.  Eternally  immortal  Being,  nameless  to  all 
but  immortals,  come  to  us.  *  *  *  But  do  thou,  O  mortal, 
always  changingly  inclined,  no  longer  hesitate,  but  retracing  thy 
steps,  make   the  Divinity  inclined  to  thee  I 

"First,  above  all,  honor  the  immortal  gods  (meaning,  in 
Christian  speech,  the  highest  angels),  as  custom  has  prescribed, 
I  hold  high  in  esteem  the  noble  heroes  of  old,  and  also  show 
the  usual  devotions  to  the  demons  under  the  earth.  Next,  honor 
thy  parents  and  thy  nearest  relations.  Of  other  men  choose  as  a 
friend  some  one  who  is  prominent  by  reason  of  his  virtues ;  and 
do  not  turn  awa}-  from  him  by  reason  of  small  foibles.  Habituate 
thyself  to  control  above  all  th^^  stomach ;  next  sleep  and  profligacy', 
and  then  anger.  Thou  shalt  commit  no  immoralities  with  others,  nor 
by  thyself,  for  it  best  becometh  thee  to  nourish  shame  before  thyself. 
Further,  learn  to  practice  justice  in  works  and  words,  and  in  no 
thing  in  life  to  act  irrationally ;  but  consider,  that  death  alone  is  sure 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  369^ 

for  US  all ;  whereas  earth's  goods  are  now  won  and  now  lost.  Hence, 
whatsoever  sorrows  Heaven's  fate  sends  to  mortals,  bear  thy  share 
without  murinuring.  Try  to  heal  the  sores  as  well  as  thou  canst,  and 
try  to  believe  that  fate  has  after  all  not  assigned  too  much  suffering 
to  the  meritorious.  *  *  *  But,  above  all,  let  nobody  ever  per- 
suade thee  by  word  or  action  to  do  or  say  what  thou  recognizest  not 
thyself  as  the  best.  Before  acting  reflect,  lest  thy  act  should  turn 
out  foolishly ;  and  do  only  that  of  which  thou  wilt  not  thereafter 
I'epent.     *     *     * 

''  Never  let  sleep  sink  upon  thy  tender  eyes  before  thou  hast  exam- 
ined every  act  of  the  day  in  three  ways :  What  did  I  ?  Where  did  I 
wrong?  Did  I  leave  no  duty  undone?  Hast  thou  done  wrong,  then 
tremble !  But  if  thou  hast  done  good,  rejoice !  When  thou  hast 
attained  this,  then  the  connection  between  the  immortal  gods  and 
mortal  men  will  become  clear  to  thee,  and  how  it  penetrates  and  gov- 
erns everything ;  but  also  how  nature  remains  in  a  general  way 
always  the  same.  In  this  way  thou  wilt  hope  for  nothing  impossible, 
and  be  surprised  by  nothing,  and  wilt  learn  that  men  also  suffer  from 
self-caused  evils.  *  *  *  Courage,  then,  since  the  mortals  are  of 
divine  origin,  and  their  consecrated  nature  teaches  them  everything. 
If  this  was  not  withheld  from  thee,  thou  also  shalt  succeed  as  I  tell 
thee,  to  redeem  thy  soul  from  these  sufferings  and  heal  its  wounds. 
Only  avoid  the  first  steps  of  evil,  and  strictly  watching  thyself,  purify 
thy  soul  for  its  redemption.  Reflect  upon  everything  closely,  and 
choose  reason  as  thy  highest  and  supreme  guide.  Then,  when  leaving 
the  I  ody,  thou  mountest  to  the  free  ether ;  and  thou  shalt  be  immor- 
tal, a  blessed  spirit  and  no  man  more." 

It  has  been  wrongly  supposed  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  wor- 
shipped animals,  because  in  their  hieroglyphs  animals  are  made,  in 
conjunction  with  other  signs,  to  represent  gods.  The  explanation  of 
this  phenomenon  is  very  simple.  Those  animals  were  used  for  hiero- 
glyphical  writings,  as  indicating  by  the  first  letter  of  their  vulgar 
name  the  first  letter  of  the  word  that  was  to  stand  for  the  special 
deity  to  be  named.  For  instance:  the  picture  of  a  bird  whose 
Egyptian  name  begins  with  an  N,  stands  for  the  letter  N.  In  the 
same  way  the  sphynx  represents,  in  the  shape  of  the  lion-body  (which 
lion  signifies  the  sun,  Osiris's  dwelling-place)  with  the  human  head 
attached  to  it,  this  same  Osiris  as  a  living  man  and  intelligence. 
And   as  Osiris  was    the  redeemer  of   the    Egyptians,   they  put   up 

24 


370  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

sphynxes  in  commemoration  of  him,  just  as  we  put  up  crucifixes, 
and  in  the  same  proportionate  number.  And  this  is  the  whole  riddle 
of  the  sphynx. 

Much  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Egyptian  legend  of  Osiris  is 
the  more  Oriental  story  of  Bel,  the  Babylonian  god,  who  had  by 
his  wife  Beltis,  —  called  b}^  Herodotus,  Mylitta,  —  and  who  is  identi- 
cal with  the  Greek  Urania  and  Astarte,  the  wife  of  Uranos  and  the 
Queen  of  Heaven,  a  son  named  Duozie,  who,  on  his  part,  is  identical 
■with  Adonis,  and  who  also  suffered  death  and  descended  into  Hell,  or 
Hades,  on  every  autumnal  equinox,  amidst  the  gi'eatest  sorrowing  and 
•despair  of  the  people  ;  and  from  which  he  arose  on  the  eighth  day, 
vrhen  the  joy  of  the  people  became  as  tumultuous  as  their  grief  had 
teen  before  harrowing. 

So  also  in  Greece,  we  have  the  son  of  god,  —  of  Zeus,  —  Dionysos, 
"whose  mother,  Persephone,  is  identical  with  Astarte  or  Kybeles.  He, 
too,  suffered  for  the  sake  of  appeasing  his  father's  wrath,  died  and 
■was  buried  in  Delphos,  where,  every  year,  at  the  shortest  day,  the 
Mienads  celebrated  his  glory  by  the  wildest  excesses.  All  shame  and 
modesty  were  thrown  aside.  Rattling  their  tyrsos-staffs  and  shouting 
Evohoe  !  ringing  their  cymbals,  blowing  their  horns,  and  filling  the  air 
with  their  shrill  pipes,  the}'  indulged  in  the  most  drunken  and  obscene 
orgies  to  show  their  love  for  the  shamefully  murdered  man-god,  whom 
the  Titans  had  literally  torn  to  pieces.  Dionysos  also,  like  Osiris, 
descended  to  Hades,  where,  together  with  his  mother,  they  also  work 
the  redemption  of  the  souls  of  the  dead,  and  thus  make  death  simply 
a  process  of  purification  for  a  new  and  better  life.  This  story  of 
Dionysos  and  Persephone  was  the  one  celebrated  by  the  Greeks  in 
their  minor  famous  "  mysteries." 

The  greater  mysteries  of  Eleusis,  however,  took  up  the  sequence 
of  this  stor}' ;  for  the  son  of  god  arose  again  from  death,  and,  having 
conquered  death  for  himself,  descended  again  to  Hell  to  liberate  Per- 
sephone ;  and  it  is  this  redemption  which  was  represented  at  the  great 
Eleusinian  mysteries.  Hence  the  exceptional  reverence  which  the 
Greeks  entertained  for  those  festivals.  "Thrice  happ}',"  says  Soph- 
ocles, "  are  they  who  have  seen  these  mysteries  before  they  descend 
to  Hades!  for  the}'  alone  have  life  there;  others,  simply  misery !  " 
"  Happy,"  says  Homer,  "  who  has  beheld  them  of  earthly  mortals! 
But  he  who  never  participated  in  them,  —  nothing  can  be  compared 
to  his  lot  when  he  is  dead,  down  there  in  the  dismal  darkness!" 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  371 

All  of  this  goes  to  show,  what  I  have  suggested  l^efore,  that  mono- 
theism was  the  real  religion  of  the  primitive  people,  even  after  tliey 
had  changed  their  conception  of  a  friendly,  companionable  God  for 
one  of  a  God  of  wrath,  and  that  the  only  consequence  of  tliis  change 
was  the  general  feeling  of  the  wickedness  of  the  world,  the  sinfulness 
of  man,  and  the  necessity  of  a  redemption  through  the  self-sacrifice, 
unto  boundless  suffering,  endless  persecution,  and  physical  death,  of 
a  human  incarnation  of  the  Deity. 

It  will  be  noticed,  as  a  curious  feature  in  the  history  of  the  devel- 
opment of  religion,  that  whereas  the  otherwise  most  perfect,  spiritual, 
and  dii-ectly  inspired  religion  of  the  Hebrews,  with  its  unsullied 
monotheism  and  implacable  hatred  of  even  all  material  representa- 
tions of  the  Deity  ("thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thyself  any  graven 
image,"  etc.),  did  not  busy  itself  about  immoi'tality,  held  no  doc- 
trine on  the  subject,  —  nay,  even  denied  an  immortal  life,  in  one  of 
its  chief  and  most  popular  sects,  the  Sadducees.  The  so-called  Pagan 
religions  held  the  faith  in  God  inseparable  from  faith  in  immortality. 
Tlieir  god,  crudely  conceived  and  materially  imaged  as  he  was,  existed 
to  them  only  as  a  redeemer  from  sin  and  dispenser  of  immortal  life 
in  a  Heaven  beyond  ;  the  Paradise  of  the  Jew  was  here  on  earth,  even 
in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  the  only  redeemer  to  whom  he  looked 
forward  was  a  Messiah, — that  is,  a  real  king,  who  should  redeem 
Canaan  from  foreign  subjection.  Tliis  will  explain  why  a  modern 
German  philosopher  (Dr.  Hugo  Delff)  of  great  repute,  and  neverthe- 
less—  strange  to  say,  in  these  our  days  —  of  rather  mystical  ten- 
dency, should  deny  to  the  Jews  almost  the  possibiUty  of  becoming 
Christians ;  an  assertion,  however,  which  history  amply  proves  to  be 
true.     I  quote  from  one  of  his  latest  works :  — 

"The  whole  process,  the  whole  life-work  of  mankind,  has  for  its 
object  to  overcome  death.  But  this  object  is  morally  conditioned. 
Or,  rather,  it  results  as  a  consequence  of  a  higher  internal  develop- 
ment of  life.  The  more  man  develops  himself  within  himself  humanly, 
spiritually,  and  the  more  he  feels  himself  in  his  inmost  spiritual  being, 
as  therein  distinguished  from  and  elevated  above  nature  and  nature's 
laws,  the  more  peculiarly  he  also  becomes  conscious  of  having  over- 
come death.  This  is  the  hfe- conflict  of  mankind,  the  conflict  between 
spirit  and  nature, — that  is,  of  nature  as  it  is  in  itself, — of  wild 
nature  ;  and  the  last  enemy  of  mankind  is  death,  the  end  of  nature. 
Nature  begins  in  order  to  end,  and  ends  in  order  to  begin ;  creating 


372  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

and  destroying  unite  in  nature.  Man,  comprehending  himself,  within 
himself  in  a  higher  being,  transcends  the  beginning  as  well  as  the 
ending  of  nature  ;  he  has  overcome  the  world  and  death.  This  is  the 
best  proof  of  immortality  —  the  Being,  the  Eternal  Life  —  which  man 
lives  in  himself ;  and  there  is  no  other  proof  than  this.  To  believe  in 
a  Heaven,  and  yet  '  to  hold  it  a  beautiful  fairy  tale,'  is  all  the  same. 
Miserable  men !  Live  Heaven,  and  you  will  remain  in  Heaven,  and 
nobody  will  expel  you  from  it.  What  is  all  this  vanity  about,  this 
coquetry  to  look  with  heroic  resignation  into  the  face  of  death,  —  of 
annihilation  ?  Aye,  if  you  feel  nothing,  it  may  well  be  that  in  such 
nothingness  even  the  nothing  shall  not  appear  to  you  any  longer 
wondrous.  But  you  forget  the  will.  Who  can  extinguish  the  fire 
of  the  will?  It  must  burn,  I  apprehend,  unto  all  eternity.  But  im- 
mortality, true  immortality,  eternal  life,  is  a  need  of  the  soul,  and  ia 
the  deed  which  it  does  with  and  in  God. 

'■'■Hellenism  and  Christianity  are  not  opjwsites,  hut  Judaism  aiid 
Christianity  are  opposites,  absolutely  irreconcilable  and  excluding  each 
other.  Judea,  the  dead  remnant  of  which  is  Judaism,  was  merely  the 
hull  wherein  which  Christianity  secretly  prepared  itself,  until  it  burst 
this  hull  and  entered  in  full  clearness  into  the  world.  Hellenism  can- 
not perish  so  long  as  the  world  stands,  and  Christianity  presupposes- 
Hellenism  as  well  as  absorbs  it,  in  order  to  impregnate  it.  The  true, 
historically  proven  road  to  Christianity  does  not  pass  through  Judea, 
but  through  Hellenism.  Judea  is  a  bursted  hull, — a  means  of  de- 
velopment which  has  now  become  superfluous  and  without  impor- 
tance. The  Jews  do  not  know  what  they  worship.  Hellenism  is  the 
whole,  full  content  and  encirclement  of  the  spiritual  powei's  and 
effects  of  life,  so  far  as  they  are  included  and  designed  in  the 
natural, — that  is,  inborn  consciousness.  These  had  to  be  developed 
and  interpreted  beforehand ;  and  Christianity  enters  to  replenish, 
them,  —  to  interpret  their  true  essence,  objects,  and  motives.  Hel- 
lenism interprets  spirit  in  a  natural  form  and  direction,  but  Chris- 
tianity interprets  the  spirit  in  itself,  —  the  subject  of  the  spirit,  which 
has  thrown  its  glow  and  glimmer  from  the  beginning  into  the  natural 
and  nature-bound  consciousness  of  mankind,  and  still  so  throws  it. 
Light  shines  in  darkness,  but  darkness  comprehends  it  not,  — that  is, 
it  comprehends  on!}'  the  glow,  and  that  it  did  very  well  comprehend 
and  interpret  wonderfully  ;   but  not  itself.  — not  the  light  itself." 

While  thus  the  Hebi-ews  had  a  pure  God-worship,  —  at  least  theo- 


THE    EXD    OF    HISTORY.  373 

retically,  —  but  lacked  the  conception  of  immortality,  and  wWle  the 
Pagans,  though  having  the  conception  of  immortalit3-,  lacked  that  of 
a  pure  God,  there  arose  among  the  Jews  a  religion  which  united  both 
conceptions,  not  only  theoretically,  but  also  historically,  in  the  per- 
son of  Jesus  Christ,  who,  by  effecting  this  union,  was  therefore  en- 
abled to  become  the  Redeemer  of  the  whole  world,  Jews  and  Pagans. 
To  the  Greeks  and  Romans  there  seemed  nothing  strange  in  the  doc- 
trine of  vicarious  atonement,  upon  which  the  Christian  religion  rests 
as  its  corner-stone,  though  to  the  Jews  it  seemed  foolishness ;    for 
the  Romans  and  the  Greeks  had  had  the  same  doctrine,  even  in  a 
crude  way.  preached  to  them  in  the  Eleusiuian  mysteries  and  the 
m3ths  of  Osiris  and  Dionysos.     Xay,  even  the  bodily  resucrection  of 
Christ  and  his  bodily  ascension  to  Heaven  had  for  them  nothing 
incredible  or  marvellous  in  it.     And  what,  indeed,  is  there  in  that 
all-important  doctrine  of  vicarious  atonement  which  should  so  arouse 
the  ire  of  men  who  consider  it  a  proof  of  their  intellectual  superi- 
ority that  they  should  oppose  the  Christian  form  of  religion?     Is  not 
in  some  way  eveiy  great  or  good  man,  who  works  for  the  advance- 
ment of  his  kind  and  their  hberation  from  the  thraldom  of  sin,  a  re- 
deemer of  his  kind  ?     And  does  not  he  atone  for  his  kind  by  the 
suffering  he  has  to  endure  in  the  course  of  his  labors,  by  the  agony 
which  weighs  upon  him  who  has  arrived  at  the  consciousness  of  the 
sinfulness  of  his  kind,  and  which  increases  in  proportion  as  the  con- 
sciousness of  that  sinfulness  increases?     Whether  we  will  or  not,  we 
do  vicariously  atone  daily  for  the  transgressions  of  our  race,  and  it  is 
only  narrow-minded  ignorance  of  the  meaning  of  this  doctrine  that 
can  scoff  at  it.     Through  all  great  and  good  men  the  Deity  reveals 
Himself  more  or  less  to  the  fallen  race,  that  has  grown  up  in  darkness 
to  look  upon  Him  as  an  enemy ;  through  all  of  them  it  strives  more 
or  less  to  effect  reconciliation  between  Himself  and  man,  but  only  in 
Christ  did  the  glory  of  God  shine  forth  in   all  its  fulness,  and  man 
was  taught  not  only  to  walk  hand-in-hand,  as  it  were,  with  God 
through  the  world,  but  also  with  and  through  Him  with  every  one  of 
his  believing  fellow-beings.     It  was  only  through  Christ  that,  in  his 
beautiful  anthromorphization,  God  became  a  "Father"  and  all  be- 
lieving mankind  brothers  and  sisters. 

This,  the  other  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Christian  religion,  is 
usually  called  the  revelation  of  God  through  Christ.  Like  the  doc- 
trine of  atonement,  it  also  has  met  with  violent  opposition  and  scoffing, 


374  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

cbiefl}'  from  a  misappt'ehension  of  the  word.  Tlie  natural  scientist 
is  willing  enough  to  speak  of  a  one  persistent  material  force  revealing 
itself  in  an  infinite  multitude  of  correlated  forces  ;  but,  with  perverse 
self-contradiction,  will  not  even  lend  an  ear  to  the  revelation  of  a  one 
spiritual  force  or  power  (God)  in  an  infinite  multitude  of  correlated 
self-conscious  or  spiritual  forces  (men),  that  live,  move,  and  have 
their  being  in  the  persistent  One  alone,  and  through  His  self-sacrifice 
in  manifesting  Himself  in  all  of  them,  — even  as  the  one  force  sacri- 
fices itself  in  becoming  a  manifold  at  the  same  time,  — making  them 
immortal  in  and  through  Him.  To  carry  the  analogy  still  further: 
The  one  persistent  force  of  the  natural  scientist  reveals  itself  in  the 
least  breath  of  air  that  moves  the  tiniest  leaf,  as  well  as  in  the  electric 
currents  that  shake  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and  cause  the  sun  itself 
to  throw  its  spots  from  one  part  of  its  surface  to  another.  But  how 
much  clearer  does  the  conception  of  a  magnetic  and  of  an  electric 
force  reveal  the  one  persistent  force  than  does  the  force  of  the 
zephyr!  Even  so  the  lowest  human  self-consciousness  reveals  the 
one  spiritual  life ;  but  in  a  far  clearer  light  do  we  recognize  it  in  men 
like  Moses,  St,  John,  or,  let  us  say,  Thomas  a  Kempis,  or  Kant. 
Still  further :  the  zephyr  force  maj^  change  into  heat  force,  and  again 
into  magnetic  force,  3'et  will  it  in  all  these  transitions  remain  one 
with  the  universal  persistent  force,  and  at  the  same  time  retain  its 
individual  zephyr  nature ;  for  nothing  that  ever  has  been  can  ever 
completely  divest  itself  of  its  past,  but  must  reveal  that  past  to  close 
examination.  The  whole  science  of  geology  rests  on  this  principle. 
So  may  the  lowest  spiritual  being  rise  from  its  incomplete  state  unto 
higher  and  higher  regions  of  development,  and  reveal  ever  more  and 
more  the  supreme  light  of  the  One  Spiritual  Life.  Yet  in  all  its  transi- 
tions of  development  it  will  remain  one  with  God,  and  at  the  same 
time  retain  its  individual  consciousness.  This  is  the  true  immortalit}^ 
and  the  true  revelation  of  God  ;  an  everlasting  inspiration  of  man  by 
the  One  Spiritual  Life,  wherein  all  men  are  centred ;  and  which  to 
awaken  in  them  and  through  them  to  manifest,  in  all  its  elements 
of  goodness,  beauty,  and  wisdom,  is  the  purpose  of  the  system 
of  government  which  I  have  proposed  in  this  book.  For  that  pur- 
pose is,  as  I  have  stated  in  the  fundamental  principles:  ^^Affirma- 
tively :  To  provide  for  the  harmonious,  temperate,  fit,  and  best  use 
attainable  of  all  the  faculties  of  mind  and  body  of  each  person,  so 
that  each  one  may  have,  under  the  law,  the  possibilit}-  of  atiaining. 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  375 

without  any  of  the  hinderances  of  ignorance,  impurity,  fraud,  or 
tyranny,  the  greatest  good,  happiness,  wisdom,  inspiration,  beauty, 
love,  and  perfection  of  which  his  faculties  and  organization  are 
capable:  first,  for  himself;  second,  for  his  family;  and,  third,  for 
the  society  or  State  in  which  he  lives.  Negatively :  To  i)rohibit  eacli 
person  from  intemperate,  inliarmonious,  reckless,  liurtfiil,  or  unfit 
abuse  or  use  of  either  or  any  of  the  faculties  of  his  mind  or  body." 

All  great  thinkers  of  the  world  are  agreed  on  this  conception  of 
revelation  or  inspiration  in  religion  as  its  supreme  element.  When  the 
uncultured  Greek  conceived  the  Deity  as  a  Nemesis,  —  i.e.,  a  purely 
destructive  power,  —  men  like  Plato  and  Aristotle  replied,  that  God 
was  not  envious,  —  that  is,  not  desirous  of  concealing  His  glor\^  from 
mankind.  "  It  lies  essentially  within  the  conception  of  true  religion," 
saj's  Hegel,  "  that  is,  of  that  religion  whereof  the  content  is  the  ab- 
solute spirit;  that  it  should  be  revealed,  and  revealed  bj^  God.  For 
since  knowledge,  or  the  principle  which  constitutes  substance,  — 
spirit,  —  is  self-determining,  as  the  infinite  form  which  exists  for 
itself,  it  is  necessarily  a  manifesting.  Spirit  is  spirit  only  in  so  far 
as  it  is  spirit  for  spirit,  and  in  absolute  rehgion  it  is  the  absolute 
spirit  which  manifests,  no  longer  merely  its  abstract  moments,  but 
itself." 

In  a  still  higher  form  this  revelation  of  God  in  man  and  through 
man,  this  completeness  of  Divine  inspiration,  which  makes  man  a  real 
"child  of  God,"  as  Christ  expresses  it,  finds  its  utterance  in  the 
Catholic  mystics,  such  as  Thomas  a  Kempis  or  Angelas  Silesius 
(Jobann  Scheffler),  who  says:  — 

"I  am  as  great  as  God;  as  I,  so  .small  is  He; 
He  cannot  over  me,  I  not  belo^v  Him  be." 

"  I  am  as  rich  as  God ;  there  can  uo  dust-speck  be, 
Which  I  hold  not  with  Him  in  common  property." 

"God  is  m\  soul,  my  flesh,  my  sinews,  and  my  lilood: 
How,  then,  should  I  not  now  throughout  be  God-imbued?" 

From  this  constant  revelation  of  God,  it  also  appears,  that  religion 
is  not  arrogant,  but  merely  logically  consequent,  when  it  says  that  we 
can  know  God.  "The  cognition  of  God,"  says  Hegel,  elsewhere, 
"is  not  above  reason,  for  reason  is  only  God's  image  and  reflection, 
and  is  essentially  the  knowledge  of  the  absolute." 

It  has  of  late  3'ears  become  fashionable  to  deprecate  drawino-  any 


376  LIBERTY    AND    LAW, 

distinction  between  the  Christian  religion  and  other  iforms  of  religion. 
I  have  alread}^  shown  its  distinction  from  tlie  Jewisli  religion,  in  that 
it  combines  the  conception  of  immortality  with  that  of  one  God,  and 
of  a  revelation  of  that  one  God,  —  preeminently  in  Christ,  but  through 
Him  also  in  all  men,  —  which  revelation,  or  inspiration,  secures  to 
man  absolute  freedom.  For  when  God,  who  is  love  in  this  Christian 
revelation,  enters  man,  and  reveals  Himself  through  man,  by  this 
same  love,  man  is  no  longer  determined  by  any  external,  foreign 
being,  but  lives  in  absolute  liberty  and  beatitude.  How  can  the 
man  who  has  risen  into  and  become  one  with  the  Godhead,  though 
still  retaining  in  full  his  individual  identity,  be  other  than  free?  How 
can  he  feel  the  One  Spiritual  Life,  of  which  he  is  an  integral  part,  as  a 
predestinating  power,  or  a  rude  rule  of  fatalism  ?  He  nowhere  comes 
in  contact  with  a  supreme  power  alien  to  him,  choosing  or  guiding 
his  destiny,  so  as  to  deprive  him  of  his  freedom ;  for  him  there  is 
no  external  Providence,  since  that  Providence  lives  in  and  through 
himself.  The  Christian  religion  unites,  therefore,  not  merely  two 
conceptions,  but  the  three  grand  ideas  which  for  all  ages  have  been 
held  to  be  the  highest  problems  of  philosophy :  God,  Freedom,  and 
Immortality.  In  the  Christian  religion  these  three  conceptions, 
which,  as  Kant  has  so  beautifully  demonstrated,  could  never  have 
been  proved  by  theoretical  reason  alone,  have  received  factical  exist- 
ence and  proof.  In  the  Christian  religion  God  is  a  fact,  immortality 
is  a  fact,  and  freedom  is  a  fact ;  and  higher  proof  cannot  be  given. 
And  this  elevates  Christianity,  as  I  have  said,  above  all  other  relig- 
ions, and  constitutes  it  the  absolute  religion. 

As  for  the  Oriental  religions,  of  which  those  modern  deprecators 
of  Christianity  so  love  to  speak,  they  are  even  below  the  religions  of 
the  Greeks  and  Egyptians  ;  just  as  their  symbolic  representations 
of  religion  are  infinitely  below  those  of  Greece  and  those  of  Eg^'pt. 

What,  for  instance,  is  the  essence  of  the  religion  of  the  ancient 
Persians,  the  religion  of  Zoroaster?  The  very  highest  praise  that 
can  be  given  to  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Hol}^  Book  of  the  Parsees,  is, 
that  it  inculcates  truthfulness,  purit}^  in  works,  words,  and  thoughts, 
charity  and  piety.  Theii^  worship  of  light,  as  the  representation  of 
God,  is  certainly  a  higher  conception  than  is  involved  in  the  worship 
of  a  wooden  or  stone  image;  but  tiie  whole  religion  is  purely  a  code 
of  morals,  and  never  rises  al)ove  a  moral  life  to  a  divine  life  in  and 
with  God. 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  377 

The  Brahmin  reli2:ion  finds  its  highest  expression  in  the  Bhagavat- 
Gita.  The  main  principle  liere  is  an  escape  from  actual  life  into  the 
absolute  by  a  sort  of  ecstacy,  into  a  state  of  complete  indifference  or 
non-identity  {yoga).  The  object  of  the  Brahmin  religion  is  to  pro- 
duce a  condition  wherein  man  feels  neither  hatred  nor  love,  but  is 
passively  emotionless.  He  is  to  become  "free  of  fear,  desire,  and 
anger,  without  hope  or  aspirations,  indifferent  in  good  or  bad  for- 
tune ;  "  he  is  "to  gather  in  his  senses  from  the  sensuous,  as  the 
turtle  gathers  in  his  head  and  feet,"  and  "  to  hold  his  heart  so  tight 
that  he  even  ceases  to  think."  The  idea  of  a  perfect  man  in  the 
Brahmin  religion  is  that  of  one  "  who  is  the  same  towards  friend  and 
enemy,  strangers  and  relatives,  bad  and  good."  How  is  it  possible 
that  this  cold  neutrality  of  a  hlase  race  of  men  could  ever  have  been 
put  into  comparison  with  the  incessantly  active  and  sympathetic  love 
which  Christianity  insists  that  men  must  cultivate,  even  as  the  Father 
in  Heaven  manifests  Himself  for  evermore  in  active  graciousness  and 
love  ? 

As  this  matter  has  grown  of  importance,  now  that  we  have  every 
day  told  to  us  by  men  of  professed  erudition,  and  whose  names 
impress  the  unlearned  multitude,  how  superior  the  Oriental  forms  of 
religion  are  to  that  of  Cln-istianit}^,  I  may  be  pardoned  for  quoting 
here,  as  an  offset,  so  to  say,  Hegel's  characteristic  of  the  Brahmin 
religion.     He  says :  — 

"  Notwithstanding  the  fecundity,  the  brilliancy,  and  the  grandeur 
of  their  conceptions,  the  Hindoos  have  never  possessed  a  clear  sense 
of  persons  and  events, — the  true  historic  sense.  In  this  constant 
amalgamation  of  the  absolute  and  the  finite,  the  complete  absence  of 
positive  spirit  and  of  reason  cannot  fail  to  be  remarked.  Thought 
permits  itself  to  wander  amidst  chimeras  the  most  extravagant  and 
the  most  monstrous  which  the  imagination  can  possibly  produce. 
Thus :  First.,  The  conception  of  Brahma  is  the  abstract  idea  of  Being, 
without  life  or  reality,  deprived  of  real  form  and  of  personalit}'. 
/Second,  From  this  idealism,  pushed  to  the  extreme,  the  intelligence 
precipitates  itself  into  the  most  unbridled  naturalism.  Third,  It 
deifies  objects  of  nature, — animals."  Divinity  "  appears  under  the 
form  of  an  idiot  man,  deified  because  he  belongs  to  a  certain  caste. 
Each  individual,  because  he  is  born  in  this  caste,  represents  Brahma 
in  person.  The  union  of  man  with  God  is  reduced  to  the  level  of 
a  simple  material  fact.     Whence,  also,  the  role  which  the  law  of  the 


378  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

generation  of  beings  plays  in  tliis  religion,  which  gives  place  to  the 
most  obscene  representations.  It  would  be  easy  to  render  appai-ent 
the  contradictions  which  swarm  in  this  religion,  as  well  as  the  confu- 
sion which  reigns  throughout  this  mythology.  A  parallel  between  the 
Hindoo  and  the  Christian  trinities  will  show  none  the  less  the  extreme 
difference.  The  three  persons  of  the  former  are  not  persons ;  each 
of  them  is  an  abstraction  with  respect  to  the  others.  Whence  it  fol- 
lows, that  if  this  trinity  has  some  analogy  with  the  Christian,  it  is 
inferior  to  it,  and  we  should  guard  ourselves  from  thinking  to  recog- 
nize it  in  the  Christian  dogma. 

"The  part  which  corresponds  to  Greek  polytheism  demonstrates 
equally  its  inferiority.  Here  we  must  remark  the  confusion  of  those 
numberless  theogonies  and  cosmogonies  which  contradict  and  destroy 
one  another,  and  wherein  the  idea  of  natural  —  not  spiritual  —  gener- 
ation distinctly  dominates.  Ol)scenity  is  often  pushed  to  the  last 
extreme.  In  the  Greek  fables,  however,  and  in  the  Theogony  of 
Hesiod  in  particular,  we  often  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  moral  sense. 
Everything  is  clearer  and  more  explicit,  more  strongly  united,  and 
we  do  not  remain  shut  up  in  the  circle  of  the  divinities  of  nature. 

"In  denying  to  Hindoo  art  the  idea  of  true  beauty  and  of  genuine 
sublimity,  we  must  not  forget  that  it  offers  us,  chiefly  in  poetry, 
scenes  from  human  life,  full  of  attraction  and  sweetness,  man3'^  grace- 
ful images  and  tender  sentiments,  most  brilliant  descriptions  of 
nature,  charming  traits  of  childlike  simplicity  and  naive  innocence 
in  love  ;  to  which,  at  the  same  time,  is  occasionally  added  much  that 
is  grand  and  noble. 

"But  as  for  that  which  concerns  the  fundamental  conceptions  in 
their  totality,  ttie  spiritual  cannot  disengage  itself  from  the  sensuous. 
Sidf  b}'^  side  with  the  most  elevated  situations  we  come  upon  the  most 
insipid  triviality,  —  a  complete  absence  of  precision  and  proportion. 
The  sublime  is  only  the  measureless ;  and,  respecting  what  holds 
good  at  the  basis  of  the  myth,  imagination,  seized  by  a  dizziness  and 
incapable  of  mastering  the  flight  of  thouglit,  wanders  into  the  fantas- 
tic, or  only  produces  enigmas,  that  have  no  meaning  for  reason." 

As  for  Buddhism,  finally,  which  is  held  up  as  the  model  religion  of 
the  Orient,  if  not  of  the  whole  world,  it  is  even  more  blase,  if  possible, 
than  Brahminism  ;  as  is  natural,  seeing  that  it  is  the  religion  of  a  man 
(the  son  of  an  elephant)  who,  after  having  tasted  all  the  delights  of 
life  (some  eighty-four  thousand  wives,  ^:iar  example'),  and  having 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  379 

been  satiated  to  disgust  tlierewith,  sought  to  obtain  poace  of  soul  by 
means  of  meditation  and  an  ascetic  life ;  and  sought  this  peace,  not 
in  love-activity  and  self-sacrifice  for  others,  as  the  Christian  seeks  to 
obtain  his  l)eatitude,  but  in  an  utter  annihilation  of  soul-life.  This 
condition  of  the  soul  is  called  by  the  Buddhists  nirvana;  and  being  a 
Hindoo  word  which  nobody  seems  to  be  able  to  interpret  correctl}', 
has  wonderfully  impressed  those  who  are  shocked  at  the  lucid,  un- 
mistakable doctrine  of  immortality  in  the  Christian  religion,  and  has 
caused  them  to  write  books  full  of  nonsense  in  praise  of  Buddhism. 

According  to  Sir  Chas.  Colebrooke,  — probably  the  best  authority  on 
the  subject, — nirvana,  when  used  as  an  adjective,  signifies  expired, 
or  extinguished,  —  as,  for  instance,  an  expired  or  extinguished  fire, 
or  a  candle  that  ceases  to  burn.  Again,  it  signifies  dead,  —  as  when 
applied  to  a  saint  who  has  left  this  world  for  a  better  one.  It  is  derived 
from  I'o,  to  blow  (as  the  wind  blows),  and  the  preposition  nir,  which  is 
a  negation ;  hence  the  whole  word,  nirvana,  signifies  unmoved  by  the 
wind.  (The  Bhogavat-Gita  speaks  of  the  same  condition  as  a  "  wind- 
less place."  But  when  the  word  is  used  as  a  substantive,  and  in  a 
philosophical  sense,  it  signifies  a  complete  ajiathy.) 

If  Sir  Charles  is  right,  therefore,  all  those  who  have  interpreted 
nirvana  as  signifjing  a  state  of  complete  annihilation  have  been 
sorely  mistaken ;  and  this  includes  by  far  the  greater  proportion  of 
Buddha-worshippers  amongst  our  own  people  of  the  Occident.  Even 
Schopenhauer  adopted  this  erroneous  view,  probably  because  it  suited 
him  to  represent  his  S3'stem  of  pessimism  as  the  doctrine  of  "the 
largest  religious  sect  in  the  world." 

This,  however,  is  also  a  preposterously  exaggerated  statement, 
based  on  the  assumption  that  all  of  China  has  adopted  the  Buddha 
religion.  Now,  it  is  well  known  that  there  is  no  State  religion  in 
Cliina,  all  sects  being  tolerated.  The  literary  class,  and  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  people, — the  less  ignorant,  —  hold  to  the  doc- 
trines of  Confucius,  though  little  heeding  them.  Followers  of  Laoutze 
are  still  to  be  found  amongst  the  ruder  tribes.  But  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  Chinese  are  quite  indifferent  to  religion  ;  the  idea  of  a 
divinity  being,  indeed,  something  for  which  the  Chinese  mind  has  no 
affiliation.  Buddhism,  finally',  though  it  undoubtedly  is  still  spread 
over  a  considerable  portion  of  China,  is  in  a  state  of  gradual  decay, 
and  has  dwindled  down  to  a  mere  image-worship,  purchase  and  sale 
of  idols,  charms,  amulets,  rosaries,  etc.     The  Chinese,  indeed,  are 


380  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

essentially  prosaic,  and  hence  incapable  of  seizing  whatever  of  spir- 
itual significance  there  is  in  Buddhism ;  the}^  are,  moreover,  preemi- 
nently vicious,  and  hence  incapable  of  carrying  out  the  purely  moral 
precepts  of  Confucius. 

Max  Mueller  also  says,  in  speaking  of  nirvana :  It  certainly  sig- 
nifies to  expire,  but  also  occurs  in  Brahminic  writings  as  the  synonym 
of  mokscha,  nervritti,  etc.,  terms  that  signify  the  highest  stage  of 
spiritual  freedom  and  beatitude,  but  do  not  signify  annihilation. 

Another  authority,  Koeppen,  says:  '■'■Nirvana  is  the  place  where 
we  gain  salvation  from  the  misery  of  birth!  " 

Tlie  holy  books  of  the  Buddliist  have  sayings  like  these :  — ■ 
"If  a  man  can  bear  all  things  he  has  attained  nirvana." 
"He  who  conquers  passion  and  hatred  enters  nirvana." 
"The  wise  man,  who   harms    no  one  and    subjugates    his   body, 
attains  nirvana.,  and  suffers  no  longer  when  he  has  attained  it." 

This,  then,  is  really  the  end  and  aim  of  the  two  chief  forms  of 
Oriental  religions:  to  attain  a  state  of  the  mind  wherein  we  are 
utterly  indifferent  to  all  external  occurrences  and  things,  looking  with 
the  same  plain  unconcern  on  vice  and  virtue,  good  and  bad,  sunshine 
and  darkness ;  in  short,  to  reach  the  beau  ideal  of  the  modern 
man  of  the  period,  who  seeks  to  attain  this  blessed  state  by  stupefy- 
ing himself  in  the  narcotic  poison  of  every  vice  he  can  absorb  into 
his  physical  nature. 

And  we  are  gravely  told,  that  these  forms  of  religion  are  of  equal 
worth,  if  not  superior  to  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  should 
receive  the  same,  if  not  a  higher  consideration  than  that  religion,  in 
the  selections  made  for  the  "readers  "  of  our  public  schools.  To  me 
it  seems  that,  even  from  the  formal  stand-point  of  the  law-giver,  the 
bringing  up  of  children  in  forms  of  faith  like  that  of  the  yoga  and 
nirvana.,  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  teaching  them  that  the  highest 
aim  of  mankind  is  to  suppress  all  activity  of  bod}-  and  mind,  and  to 
become  a  Zoq/e?%  pure  and  simple, — a  lazzaroni,  a  public  beggar, 
etc.,  —  ought  not  to  be  tolerated  hy  any  form  of  government  that 
means  to  perpetuate  itself;  for  tliose  forms  of  faith  annihilate  all 
government  and  render  impossible  the  enforcement  of  law. 

Of  all  the  Oriental  forms  of  religion,  only  the  sayings  of  Confucius 
are  worth  notice  ;  and  even  the}'  read  very  coarsely.  If  an  old  adage, 
that  the  culture  of  women  in  a  State  indexes  the  culture  of  the  whole 
population,  is  true,  then  the  civilization  of  China  is  the  lowest  ever 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  381 

known  on  earth ;  for  the  Chinese  woman  is  taught  at  her  birth  that 
she  is  an  inferior  creature ;  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  unhappy 
creatures  are  smothered,  exposed  for  possible  adoption,  or  sold  in 
their  infancy.  Those  who  survive  are  brought  up  clumsily  shaped, 
from  bottom  of  sole  to  top  of  head.  Finally,  the  great  boast  which  our 
Occidental  students  of  Oriental  culture  preach  forth  these-  days,  that 
the  Chinese  have  universal  public  education  and  civil-service  reform, 
is  utterly  wrong.  So  far  as  women  are  concerned,  it  is  altogether 
wrong.  The  Chinese  women,  if  in  the  lower  rank,  are  rigorously 
prohibited  from  cultivating  their  minds,  excluded  from  all  benefits 
of  public  education,  and,  with  very  rare  exceptions,  do  not  even  know 
what  civil  service  is.  But  even  so  far  as  the  men  are  concerned,  the 
poor  classes  —  that  is,  the  vast  majority  of  the  people  —  grow  up  in 
utter  ignorance,  and  only  a  special  class  cultivates  letters. 

The  onl}'  rehgion  showing  the  true  characteristics  of  faith,  hope, 
and  charity  is  the  Chi'istian  religion. 


CHAPTER   II. 


THE   DANGERS   OF  A  PRIESTCRAFT   THEOCRACY. 

Having  thus  arrived  at  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  religion,  I 
shall  now  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  its  historical  existence  as  a 
Church.  There  was  naturally  no  need  or  possibility  of  a  Church 
organization  while  men  led  simply  the  nomadic  life  which  I  have 
described,  nor  was  there  any  necessity  for  a  special  institution  of 
priests,  as  intermediaries  between  man  and  God,  while  man  remained 
in  direct  personal  communication  with  God.  It  was  only  with  the 
rise  of  cities  that  temples  were  built ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  need  of 
labor  and  the  desire  for  gain  so  engaged  men's  minds,  that  their  direct 
inspiration  through  God  became  clogged,  and  required  an  external 
force  for  its  reopening.  This  external  force  was  supplied  by  the 
priests  through  exhortations,  and  such  other  solemn  ceremonies  as 
seemed  to  them  calculated  to  arouse  the  dormant  religious  sentiments 
of  the  masses.  Naturally  this  priestly  power  grew  in  proportion  to 
the  growth  of  ignorance,  and  consequent  alienation  from  God,  amongst 
the  common  people,  until,  in  the  course  of  time,  the  priesthood  came 


382  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

to  be  looked  upon  as  a  class  of  men  altogether  distinct  from  the  mass 
of  ordinary  human  beings,  —  a  higher  order  of  creatures,  —  through 
whom  alone  the  common  mortal  could  hold  communion  with  God, 
learn  His  commandments,  and  obtain  His  forgiveness. 

Of  all  the  passions  that  arise  in  the  human  soul,  love  of  power  is 
the  most  demoniac,  seeing  that  its  sole  object  is  the  subjugation  of 
the  free  will  of  others.  The  essence  of  man  is  freedom  ;  and  it  is  the 
destruction  of  this  freedom,  this  supreme  quality  of  rational  beings, 
which  the  love  of  power  contemplates.  In  one  way  this  passion  had 
made  itself  manifest  in  an  early  period  of  the  history  of  our  race,  as 
I  have  shown,  by  the  assumption  of  rule  on  the  part  of  some  strong- 
willed  men,  and  the  consequent  establishment  of  despotic  govern- 
ments. And  now  there  arose  by  the  side  of  these  secular  ri^lers  a 
vast  number  of  ecclesiastical  rulers,  animated  by  the  same  passion,  — 
of  subjugating  the  free  will  of  others,  — and  furthered,  moreover,  in 
this  design  by  the  people  themselves,  who  were  but  too  ready  to 
accept  the  mediation  of  the  priests  between  their  conscience  and  God, 
instead  of  working  out  that  mediation  for  themselves  by  self-sacrifice, 
repentance,  and  exertion.  This  inertia  on  the  part  of  the  masses, 
and  consequent  readiness  to  submit  to  priest-rule,  —  as  they  had 
already  submitted  to  the  rule  of  tja-ants,  and  as  in  the  course  of 
time  they  submitted,  with  the  same  passive  readiness,  to  the  rule  of 
the  money-lords,  —  was  naturally  stronger  in  proportion  to  their 
ignorance  and  stupidity. 

Hence  Kant  says  very  aptl}^,  in  his  "  Critic  of  Pure  Religion  "  :  — 

"The  worship  of  powerful  invisible  beings,  which  was  forced  from 
man  by  a  natural  fear,  founded  on  the  consciousness  of  his  impo- 
tency,  did  not  begin  at  once  with  the  beginning  of  religion,  but  arose 
in  the  shape  of  an  idol- service,  which,  after  having  obtained  a  certain 
public  legal  form,  became  a  temple- service,  and  which  ultimately  be- 
came a  church-service  only  after  the  moral  culture  of  man  had  been 
united  with  that  legal  form." 

The  same  general  view  of  the  relation  between  church-service  and 
religion  is  expressed  in  a  more  philosophical  form  by  Professor  Rosen- 
kranz,  in  his  commentary  on  Hegel's  Encyclopaedia,  as  follows:  — 

"Religion  realizes  its  conception  partly  through  theoretical  and 
partly  through  practical  authority.  In  regard  to  the  former,  it  be- 
comes a  belief  in  the  form  in  which  a  religion  assumes  to  represent 
the  idea  of  God  to  our  consciousness.     The  cultus  causes  the  thinking 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  383 

of  man  to  sink  down  into,  and  be  absorlied  in  the  thought  of  God. 
It  annuls  itself,  thinking  with  all  the  broadness  of  its  finite  conditions, 
in  thus  making  present  unto  itself  the  Absolute,  Eternal,  in  and 
through  Himself,  as  a  self-existing  Being.  This  is  the  point.  The 
formal  accreditations  which  faith  put  forward  to  attest  its  truth,  such 
as  external  authority,  stories  of  miracles,  etc.,  are  really  of  no  im- 
portance. A  miracle  has  no  religious  significance,  and  in  religion  we 
have  to  deal  only  with  matters  of  religion.  In  a  practical  respect, 
however,  the  cultus  assumes  various  forms,  the  central  point  of  which 
is  the  sacrifice.  In  the  religion  of  the  spirit  this  changes  into  a  sacri- 
fice of  the  heart,  —that  is,  of  the  natural  egotism  of  our  feelings." 

But  to  express  in  the  clearest  and  most  thorough  manner  the  rela- 
tion of  the  cultus,  as  church-service,  to  religion  pure  and  simple,  and 
to  arrive  in  the  shortest  way  at  the  point  where  Church  and  State 
come  into  conflict,  let  me  once  more  quote  from  Kant's  great  work, 
of  all  his  four  Critics  perhaps  the  foremost  in  popular  appreciation. 
It  is  the  more  interesting  when  we  remember  that  this  Critic  —  the 
Critic  of  Pure  Religion  —  was  the  work  which  brought  Kant,  at  the 
time  of  its  first  publication,  in  conflict  with  the  Prussian  government ; 
the  Prussian  clergy  having  induced  the  pietistic  King  Frederick  III, 
to  suppress  the  work.  Connecting  with  the  above  quotation,  Kant 
proceeds : — 

"  To  divert  the  invisible  power  which  rules  the  fate  of  men,  to  their 
own  advantage,  is  the  object  which  all  religious  people  have  in  view ; 
and  they  differ  only  in  regard  to  the  means,  which  to  emplo3^  If 
thej^  look  upon  that  power  as  a  rational  Being,  and  hence  ascribe  to  it 
a  will,  which  is  to  decide  their  fate,  then  their  desire  can  be  onlj'^ 
directed  towards  the  selection  of  the  manner  in  which  thej'  can  please 
that  Being  by  their  actions.  If  they  think  that  it  is  a  moral  Being, 
they  can  readily  convince  themselves,  through  their  own  reason,  that 
the  condition  under  which  to  acquire  its  approval  must  be  a  moral, 
pure  mode  of  living,  and  especially  a  pure  heart,  as  the  subjective 
principle  of  a  pure  life.  But  perhaps  the  highest  Being  may  wish  to 
be  served,  furthermore,  in  a  manner  which  cannot  become  known  to 
us  through  mere  reason,  namely',  by  acts  in  which,  by  themselves, 
"we  can  see  nothing  moral,  but  which  we  nevertheless  perform  volun- 
tarih'  as  commanded  by  Him,  or  were  it  but  to  show  our  submission 
to  Him  ;  in  both  of  which  cases,  if  those  acts  constitute  a  S3'stem  of 
regulated  acts,  they  therefore  establish  a  service  of  God. 


384  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

"Now,  if  both  are  to  be  united,  either  the  first  one  must  be  assumed 
as  an  immediate  service,  or  one  of  the  two  must  be  regarded  simply 
as  a  means  for  the  other,  —  for  the  true  service  of  God,  for  the  true 
manner  in  wliich  to  please  Him.  It  is  self-evident  that  the  moral 
service  of  God  (nffierum  Hberum)  must  please  Him  immediately. 
But  it  cannot  be  considered  as  the  chief  condition  of  all  God's  satis- 
faction with  man,  if  the  other  service,  which  may  be  called  a  service 
of  wages  {offierum  mercenarmm),  can  be  regarded  as  being  also 
alone  and  of  itself  pleasant  to  God ;  since  in  such  a  case  no  one 
would  know  what  service  would  be  preferable  to  God  in  a  specific 
case,  and  would  consequently  be  unable  to  direct  his  duties  accord- 
ingly. Hence  we  must  consider  acts  which  have  no  moral  value  in 
themselves,  as  being  acceptable  to  God  only  in  so  far  as  they  serve 
to  promote  that  which  is  of  itself  good  in  our  acts,  —  that  is,  morality  ; 
or,  in  other  words,  only  in  so  far  as  they  serve  the  moral  service  of 

God. 

"Now,  the  man  who  nevertheless  practices  acts,  which  in  them- 
selves contain  nothing  pleasant  to  God  (nothing  moral),  as  a  means  to 
obtain  the  Divine,  immediate  satisfaction,  and  thereby  the  fulfilment 
of  his  wishes,  is  reputed  to  be  in  the  possession  of  an  art  whereby  he 
can  produce  a  supernatural  effect  by  altogether  natural  means.  This 
art  is  usually  called  witcJicraft;  but  since  this  word  has  also  the  mean- 
ing of  a  communion  with  the  evil  principle,  whereas  the  art  of  which 
we  speak  may  be  practised,  after  all,  with  good  intentions,  we  shall 
rather  call  it  Fetish-worship.  But  if  a  man  claims  that  he  can  pro- 
duce a  supernatural  effect,  he  claims  that  he  has  a  power  over  God, 
and  uses  God  as  a  means  whereby  to  produce  an  effect  in  the  world 
which  his  own  power  cannot  produce;  nay,  which  his  own  insight 
cannot  even  show  him  whether  that  effect  will  be  acceptable  to  God 
or  not.  The  mere  conception  of  this  presumption  involves  an  ab- 
sui-dity.     *     *     * 

"Priestcraft,  therefore,  is  the  organization  of  a  Church,  in  so  far 
as  a  Fetish- worship  is  established  in  it,  which  is  always  the  case  where 
it  is  not  morality,  but  statutory  or  canonical  commandments,  rules  of 
faith,  and  ceremonial  observances  that  form  its  basis  and  essence. 
Now,  it  is  true,  that  there  are  many  Church  forms  wherein  the  Fetish- 
worship  is  so  manifold  and  mechanical,  that  it  seems  as  if  it  were 
intended  to  take  the  place  almost  altogether  of  morality,  and  hence 
also  of  religion,  and    thus    approach    very  closely  to  the    forms   of 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  385 

Paganism  ;  but  the  more  or  less  is  of  no  consequence  here,  where  the 
worth  or  unworth  of  acts  depends  upon  the  quality  of  the  highest 
uniting  principle  which  prompts  them.  If  this  principle  demands 
obedient  submission  to  a  rule,  as  a  slave-service,  and  not  a  free 
acknowledgment, — which  is  due  to  the  moral  law  before  ever3  thing 
else,  — then,  let  the  imposed  observances  be  ever  so  few,  it  is  always 
a  Fetish-worship  which  governs  the  masses,  and  by  their  submission 
to  a  Church  deprives  them  of  their  moral  freedom.  Whether  the 
government  of  such  a  Church  be  its  hierarchy,  be  monarchical,  or 
aristocratic,  or  representative,  this  concerns  only  its  organization  ; 
but  its  operative  results  will,  under  all  these  forms,  remain  the 
same, — despotic.  Where  the  statutes  of  faith  are  counted  in  as 
belonging  to  the  constitution,  or  creed,  or  canonical  law,  there  a 
priesthood  (^clerus)  governs,  which  believes  that  it  can  get  along  quite 
well  without  reason,  —  na}^  after  awhile,  perhaps,  even  without 
saci'ed  writings,  —  since  itself,  as  the  only  authorized  custodian  and 
interpreter  of  the  will  of  God,  the  invisible  Law-giver,  has  alone  the 
authorit}'-  to  administer  the  prescriptions  of  faith  ;  and,  armed  with 
this  power,  has  no  need  to  convince,  but  needs  simpl}'^  to  command. 

"Now,  since,  with  the  exception  of  tliis  priesthood,  all  other  men 
are  laymen, — even  the  head  of  the  political  Commonwealth, — the 
Church  in  the  end  rules  the  State,  if  not  exactly  through  force,  at 
an}''  rate  through  its  influence  on  the  minds  of  men,  and  through  its 
magnification  of  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  an  implicit 
obedience,  to  which  obedience  a  spiritual  discipline  has  even  habitu- 
ated thinking.  But,  in  all  this,  the  practice  of  hypocris}''  imper- 
ceptibly roots  out  honesty  and  fidelit}^  in  the  people,  causing  them 
to  perform  their  sei'vices  as  citizens  of  a  State  also  in  the  same 
hypocritical  manner,  and  thus,  like  all  false  principles,  results  in  the 
very  reverse  of  what  it  was  intended  to  effect." 

Here,  then,  we  have  it  clearly  stated  how  and  why  a  collision 
between  Church  and  State  is  always  possible,  namely,  because  the 
love  of  power,  alluded  to  before,  is  apt  to  induce  the  clergy  to  per- 
vert the  minds  of  the  people  in  regard  to  their  proper  relation  to  the 
State  government  and  the  exercise  of  their  individual  freedom.  The 
first  kind  of  perversion,  no  government,  whatever  its  form  or  nature 
may  be,  can  tolerate  ;  since  it  leads  virtuall}^  to  a  submission  of  the 
legally  constituted  government   to  the   control  of  an  ecclesiastical 

25 


386  LIBERTY    AND    LAW. 

body,  claiming  supernatural,  infallible  authority.  The  darkest  pages 
of  history  have  been  filled  by  the  wars  and  persecutions  that  have  re- 
sulted from  this  confliat  between  ecclesiastical  and  civil  governmental 
organizations,  wherever  the  former  have  laid  arrogant  claim  to  a 
direct  inspiration  from  the  Deit}^  denied  to  the  laymen.  The  second, 
kind  of  perversion  no  republican  government  can  tolerate,  because  it 
undermines  and  finally  eradicates  that  freedom  of  the  individual 
which  is  the  only  support  of  republics,  and  which  is  the  essence  of 
morality,  without  which  republican  mode  of  thinking  and  action  is 
impossible.  To  the  people  of  the  United  States  of  America  it  is, 
therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance  that  this  second  kind  of  perver- 
sion of  the  public  mind  should  be  made  impossible.  There  are  two 
ways  in  which  this  can  be  accomplished.  The  first  is  afforded  bj^  our 
form  of  government  itself,  which,  in  its  circular  movement,  provides 
for  its  own  defence  against  its  most  dangerous  enemy,  —  more  dan- 
gerous always  in  proportion  as  it  is  a  sneaking,  insidiously  working 
enemy.  A  republican  form  of  government,  based  as  it  is  upon  indi- 
vidual freedom,  and  protecting  that  freedom  to  the  utmost  possible 
extent,  necessarily  brings  up  its  citizens  in  the  habit  of  libert}',  and 
any  attempt  to  infringe  upon  that  liberty  is  immediately  encountered 
by  instinctive  resistance.  Whereas  in  other  countries  the  priesthood 
is  looked  upon  as  a  distinctive,  superior  body  of  men,  the  average 
citizen  of  our  republic  looks  upon  a  clergyman  as  simply  a  human 
being  like  himself,  the  only  difference  arising  from  his  chosen  voca- 
tion. He  has  no  inborn  or  acquired  privileges  as  a  clergyman,  no 
special  prerogative  to  assume  authority  over  those  who  have  chosen 
another  vocation,  and  consequently  no  more  or  less  authority  to  fix 
his  particular  views  upon  the  State  government  than  is  enjoyed  by 
the  lowest  citizen,  each  according  to  his  gifts.  So  long  as  this  spirit 
of  individual  freedom  is  cherished  by  the  American  people,  there  is 
no  need  to  apprehend  danger  from  the  encroachment  of  the  Church  ; 
but  it  is  essentially  necessary  for  the  future  enjoyment  of  this  secur- 
ity, that  this  spirit  of  individual  freedom  should  be  fostered  with  the 
utmost  care  and  vigilance. 

The  second  mode  is,  to  awaken  the  moral  freedom  within  the  indi- 
viduals themselves,  since  moralit}'  abhors  external  authority  and  blind 
submission  to  the  teachings  of  others,  be  they  priests  or  so-called 
scientific  authorities.     To  attain  this  purpose  was  the  object  of  mj-- 


THE    END    OF    HISTORY.  387 

proposed  elaboration  of  our  public-school  education,  so  as  to  make  it 
■embrace  all  the  faculties  and  possibilities  of  the  human  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  organization  ;  to  which  I  may,  fittingly  enough, 
allude  here  again,  at  the  end  of  this  book,  as  the  basis  and  corner- 
•stone  of  our  civilization,  liberties,  and  gradual  approach  to  a  full 
and  free  communion  with  the  Deity.  For  this,  after  all,  and  this 
only,  is  the  rational  end  of  the  history  of  our  race. 


THE    END. 


c^^^'^f, 


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